1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 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 deepen the prayer and worship of a campus community by engaging art in community worship spaces and by creating new art together as a devotional practice.
To promote the role of visual art in the liturgy as a means of meeting God in worship, led by a community of worship artists.
To cultivate in children an awareness of the beauty of God in worship while teaching them skills for leading worship through music, dance, and visual arts.
To facilitate relationships between Anglo- and African-American churches by fully engaging in one another’s worship experiences and by creating liturgical art together.
To expand and strengthen the communal nature of campus worship by exploring the relationship between liturgy and spiritual disciplines and by engaging visual art as a form of intercessory prayer.
To reflect the divine hospitality of the triune God in worship by equipping leaders to facilitate the active participation of all worshipers and by creating a space that aesthetically leads people into worship.
To enrich worship by collaboratively creating artistic liturgical resources inspired by the book of Revelation in order to promote a rich engagement with Scripture.
To implement a participatory intergenerational worship service in which worshipers engage Scripture through art, music, storytelling, and guided discussion.
To deepen members’ experience of the holiness of God by exploring how various art forms can strengthen liturgical participation.
To expand an understanding of corporate worship as a means of God’s grace and spiritual formation by practicing worship habits using the arts.
To invite people into the biblical story in worship and encourage them to expand their imagination of God by focusing on collaboratively-created art.
To engage in collaborative worship planning and leading that deepens the multicultural expressions of the congregation through visual and musical arts.
