1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 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 provide spiritual formation to online and in-person congregations through posting teachings on prayer, sabbath, generosity, service, and solitude in the church’s app.
To reduce the hearing and visual barriers that limit some members from full participation in the worship service by practicing liturgical dance and scripture enactment that include assistive listening and captioning.
To encourage connection between generations through the development of church-wide devotionals, intergenerational retreats, youth-led worship tech training, and new formats for worship services and community-based gatherings.
Brad East
To deepen Christian discernment about the impact of digital technology on Christian worship through the study of both challenges and opportunities presented to churches, pastoral ministry, and public worship by new digital mediums.
To equip lay leaders by hosting workshops that broaden understanding of what preaching can be in an intergenerational and hybrid worship context in order to expand leaders’ repertoire of meaningful ways of engaging with scripture to facilitate spiritual growth.
To train children and youth in understanding of worship and in worship skills, including media technology and leading music, to equip them to lead worship at Lighthouse Full Life Center.
To empower lay leaders to create digital worship services that enable lay leaders in other rural churches to facilitate worship without a clergy member.
To develop a worship community resource and learning platform with theologically sound, justice-rooted resources for congregational singing, bolstered by in-person learning events and educational video projects connecting congregational song to strong discipleship.
To connect older and younger generations in both church and neighborhood communities through creating virtual meeting places for online worshipers and by creating opportunities for intergenerational musical and artistic engagement.
Robert Neil Cooke
To develop a theology of technology and social media that leads to the development of liturgical skills in the local church context and of ways to utilize technology and social media to strengthen the public activities of the church.
To enhance our bilingual worship service experience to impact our local church family and the online community, becoming a multicultural church.
To enable the full, conscious, active participation of online worshipers by developing community among those worshiping online and in-person.
