1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2025 Calvin Institute of Christian Worship
CICW has awarded Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grants for over 20 years to teacher-scholars and worshiping communities in 45+ states and provinces and across 40+ denominations and traditions—including Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, non-denominational, and other Protestant communities.
While worship styles and practices vary greatly across these traditions, the grant projects typically explore at least one of CICW’s ten core convictions related to worship. Explore the hundreds of projects we’ve funded across both streams of the program.
To express the broad range of worship expressions that appear in the Bible through workshops to create liturgies, prayers, responsive readings, music, poems and art with a focus on the Psalms and Revelation.
To develop a focus each month on topics such as the call to worship, doxology, and the practice of listening that will lead the congregation to understand worship as something that acts upon and forms us to be the community that God calls us to be.
To explore with young children how artistic response gives language to their understanding of God through mentoring and communication with staff and parents to more deeply engage them in worship in school and in their congregations.
To explore the Psalms with children, youth and families through art, music and memorizing Scripture to shape a posture of hope and give words to express doubts, questions and fears.
To create on-campus initiatives that will connect academic life with campus worship by creating a university-wide theme of prayerfulness and to form a Spiritual Formation cohort of professors to intentionally link campus worship practices with the classroom, introduce spiritual practices in the classroom and explore the relationship between spiritual practice and pedagogy.
To equip five congregations in different regions and settings to use liturgies based on those used during the Protestant Reformation and to demonstrate how they may be used in congregational life today.
To immerse the congregation in activities that will encourage worshipers to pray and reflect on the effects of prayer through the Psalms, prayers for healing, drumming circles, embodied prayer and to use the written prayers of the community in worship.
To study liturgy past and present that will lead to more deliberate worship planning resulting in a new understanding of God's character, nature and work in a young and growing congregation which meets in two locations.
To explore new music, dance and drama that will deepen worship and bridge racial, cultural and generational divides to promote unity among people in the congregation who represent 40 different countries and meet in several locations.
To immerse the congregation in the Psalms of Ascent with the help of linguists, musicians, visual artists and pastors that will help the congregation form faith, identity and tradition in modern life.
To partner with congregations to develop a process that will support the authentic engagement of young people in congregational life.
To offer a year-long study for the congregation and community with a focus on the Psalms, lamentation and prayer that will foster radical hospitality and intergenerational worship.
