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 encourage the congregation’s worship formation by training worshipers to participate in preaching, intercessory prayer, and music.
Anna Mercedes
To build the capacity of worshiping communities to be formed as peacemakers and to move through conflict transformatively through the development of restorative justice practices for use in worship.
To create an intentional worshiping community of adult disciples seasoned in liturgical leadership to gather in worship and cross-pollinate their unique worship practices, culminating in leadership at the Disciples Worship and Arts Institute that welcomes participants from across the Christian church.
To re-enliven drive-in worship services by exploring embodied worship practices and to encourage deeper connections in worship and with those who gather for worship.
To create worship experiences that are Spirit-led, participatory, and deeply rooted in the gospel by equipping worship leaders and congregants to integrate storytelling as a sacred practice within weekly worship.
To diversify the cultural representation of the music used in Mennonite churches by developing best practices for creating, sourcing, curating, and hosting resources from a greater diversity of worship expressions.
To promote intergenerational faith formation, spiritual curiosity, and a sense of belonging within the church community by engaging worshipers in a multisensory worship lab experience.
To deepen congregants’ theological understanding and practice of worship through hands-on workshops, multimedia resources, and interactive prayer stations that foster connections between gathered worship and personal devotion.
To provide a space for Korean-speaking and bilingual households to worship, pray, and listen to God’s word in culturally and spiritually relevant ways.
To ground congregants in faith rituals that tie the mind and body together by offering workshops, structured according to the order of worship, that highlight particular practices and experiences for use in worship.
To support the worship of people with dementia and varied disabilities by collaborating with neighboring churches to host workshops that encourage and develop accessible, sensory-friendly worship practices.
