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.
University of Notre Dame Folk Choir
J.J. Wright
J.J. Wright
To teach Christian communities how to see grace and mercy in loss and suffering by enabling young people to contemplate difficult questions as they rehearse and perform the newly composed Passion for the Innocents.
Fuller Seminary/Brehm Center
Maria Eugenia Fee
Maria Eugenia Fee
To establish and facilitate a series of arts-based leadership development workshops for pastors and church leaders in order to introduce them to the formational value of the arts in worship and invigorate arts-based worship practices in their faith communities.
Azusa Pacific University
Alexander Jun
Alexander Jun
To study the experience of students of color in chapel programs at Christian colleges and universities, and to assess the influence of chapel worship practices on the stated goals of these institutions with regard to diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Concordia University
Rhoda Schuler
Rhoda Schuler
To analyze the field research data on the adult catechumenate in the Lutheran church and to offer workshops that help pastors and congregations envision an adult catechumenal model that could transform their congregations.
Hope College
Benjamin Meagher
Benjamin Meagher
To study how the physical design and layout of a worship space influences the experience and reflects the religious identity of the congregation that worships there.
Mercer University
Nathan Myrick
Nathan Myrick
To identify, through ethnographic research, the myriad ways that musical worship participates in human flourishing, and to share these insights with Christian leaders in order to promote healthy and vibrant communities of Christian fellowship and worship.
Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Mimi Larson
Mimi Larson
To gather wisdom from ministry leaders who thoughtfully engage children in worship, seeking to better theological and pedagogical understanding of how children make meaning of their worship experiences.
Fuller Theological Seminary
Ed Willmington
Ed Willmington
To research six vocational competencies of well-formed worship leaders and develop a variety of resources to share insights related to the formation of worship leaders.
Lee University
Lisa Milligan Long
Lisa Milligan Long
To survey worshipers' understanding of the effect of participation in the Lord's Supper, and to offer methods to leaders in a variety of denominational settings for deepening Eucharistic participation.
Trinity Christian College
Kyle Dieleman
Kyle Dieleman
To study the relationship between Sabbath observance and spiritual formation, offering historical insights and exploring contemporary adaptations.