1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 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.
Find resources related to the learning from the Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grants Program.
To energize and enrich worship through the congregation-wide shared experience of planning, creating and evaluating relevant, service-specific visual art.
To offer a one-week Summer Institute on worship and the arts for clergy, laity and seminarians with the intent of exploring the intersections of arts and religion and how these intersections can renew worship.
To engage the congregation in a study of their worship environment, and to hold a symposium exploring how the arts can help shape a worship setting, especially for churches that do not have a permanent worship facility.
To support a conference for pastors, worship leaders, seminary and university students, and laypersons on the theological foundation of worship and practical skills for leading worship, with an emphasis on the use of visual arts.
To develop music and visual arts for the liturgical year which will encourage and inspire creativity in small congregations with limited resources.
To establish a series of workshops and discussions on the language of liturgy, and to encourage creativity in congregational song, movement and visual art.
To host Worship and the Visual Arts, a conference to explore the theology of integrating visual arts with congregational worship, especially in the small church.
To sponsor a conference, "Arts Ministry: Fostering the Creative life of God's People" that will expose participants to critical thinking about the church and the arts, present them with good models of arts ministry and provide a list of resources for arts ministries.
To present four workshops to help smaller congregations begin using worship programs involving the use of dramatic readings and skits, puppets with children, interactive and narrative styles of sermons and creative changes to worship environments such as banners and interactive orders of worship.
To offer workshops for clergy, lay leaders, musicians and youth from 26 churches on the Scriptural principles for worship and the use of visual and performing arts in worship services.
To create visual materials for worship and develop skills in worship and music leaders for integrating contemporary and traditional hymnody in university-oriented congregations.
To sponsor an arts conference to broaden the experience of the arts in worship in southern Ontario churches by actively involving conference participants in the process of developing the arts for worship.
