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.
Candler School of Theology
Jonathan Calvillo
Jonathan Calvillo
To examine how hip-hop can be a resource for building spiritual community among Latinx diaspora by modeling how to integrate experiences of race, social engagement, and spiritual support in ministry with youth.
Samford University
Nelson Cowan
Nelson Cowan
To equip churches to better understand youths’ motivations for participation in worship by conducting a qualitative study of their attitudes toward diverse liturgical forms, their responses to liturgical change, and their participation in public Christian worship.
Providence College
Daria Spezzano
Daria Spezzano
To draw on the teachings of Thomas Aquinas to provide tools for disaffiliated Catholic college students to engage the goodness, truth, and beauty of God in worship as a response to their search for meaning.
Fuller Youth Institute
Tyler Greenway
Tyler Greenway
To investigate the perceptions of public worship practices among young people who do not regularly attend worship services, in order to provide insight to Christian worshiping communities as they seek to better understand the life narratives of this population.
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.
Union Presbyterian Seminary
Richard Voelz
Richard Voelz
To create and field-test a workbook that will equip pastors to walk with adolescent preachers as they prepare to preach in public worship and other congregational contexts.