1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2024 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 integrate engagement with God through the arts into worship by cultivating a community of artists who will serve in a variety of churches.
To strengthen and deepen worshipers’ experience of God by engaging the Psalms through prayer, study, contemplation, service and the arts.
To invite people into the biblical story in worship and to broaden their vocabulary for interacting with God using visual art as a focal point.
To use the arts to explore every aspect of worship to invite all people into the presence of the beauty, majesty, mystery, and holiness of the triune God.
To develop long-term habits of spiritual formation through corporate worship in students preparing for cross-cultural service, focusing on the arts and Biblical literacy.
To practice contemplative forms of worship as a way of engaging people with God in both counter-cultural and culturally contextual ways.
To deepen young people’s engagement with Scripture, with one another, and with their community by training them to lead worship through dance, music, and mime, using the Psalms as a model.
To unite two congregations in mutual partnership by facilitating full engagement in music, arts, and sacraments through bilingual worship.
To promote the role of visual and performing arts in the liturgy as a means of meeting God in worship, by providing opportunities for artists to lead the congregation.
To help worshipers live into the salvation story in the liturgical year by participating in collaborative art-making that will be incorporated into corporate worship.
To break down barriers of age, ethnicity, and worship tradition by engaging and theologically reflecting on the arts, theater, and music in worship.
To increase Biblical literacy and an awareness of the beauty of God by expressing scripture through art.
