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 explore art and creativity as an act of worship to promote shalom in the community through workshops, retreats, and learning practices of contemplative creativity.
To connect different generations through partnered experiences of varied artistic and worship expressions to promote connection, spiritual health, and joy.
To explore the intersection of artistic communication, theology and Scripture through a yearlong exploration of Ezekiel 47:1-12, by creating and reflecting on art with an artist-in-residence.
To center the sacraments in worship by collaboratively creating artwork for worship that contextualizes images of bread, wine, and water for each season of the church year.
To encourage worshipful reflection on Easter hope by creating a theologically informed outdoor art installation and hosting events related to the piece.
To enrich worship by incorporating multiple forms of art created by worshipers at intergenerational workshops focused on creating art as a form of prayer.
To facilitate discipleship by deeply engaging the stories of Advent and Easter through multiple disciplines, including theology, personality, technology, and worship arts.
To gather songwriters, poets, and artists to produce songs, prayers, art pieces, and videos that will resource and inspire under-resourced Anabaptist communities across North America.
James K.A. Smith
To prepare an essay that explores how contemporary visual and literary art fosters contemplative habits, an inviting 'preamble' to spiritual contemplation involved in both personal and communal liturgical practices.
To engage the beauty of art in worship in order to awaken our understanding and imagination of what it means to care for God’s created world.
To invite worshipers into reflection on traditions of liturgical art that facilitates engagement with wonder and the beauty of God, culminating in the collaborative creation of paraments for the worship space.
To deepen, enrich, and connect the individual and corporate worship life of congregants by drawing on the devotional practices of the saints throughout history in aesthetically rich and cohesive worship experiences that have corresponding practices which engage the senses and foster embodied devotional practices at home.
