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.
Bridge Street AME Church
To bring together multiple generations to plan liturgies that connect Sunday worship to daily life and to enhance the liturgy through artistic interpretations of scripture.
Campus Chapel of Ann Arbor
To incorporate visual arts and video into campus worship in a theologically thoughtful and culturally sensitive way through community conversations and learning events.
Central Presbyterian Church
To develop a year-long emphasis on all ages living in the presence of God in worship by encouraging deeper participation in scripture, sacraments, prayer, and the arts.
Christian Theological Seminary
To encourage the development of arts ministries and the incorporation of a variety of arts in worship as a regular liturgical practice of the community.
First Congregational United Church of Christ
To create a template for developing multisensory celebrations of the Eucharist during each season of the liturgical year and collaborate with worship leaders to coordinate music and visual art with lectionary texts.
First Presbyterian Church
To create worship experiences that draw multiethnic congregations closer together and develop deeper spiritual connections to the city surroundings and global community through global music, arts and media.
Glen Ellyn Evangelical Covenant
To strengthen and encourage intergenerational worship through the church year and creative excellence in all aspects of worship including music, visual arts, sacred space design, spoken and written proclamation, prayer, and liturgy—all guided by the psalms.
Institute for Prison Ministries, Wheaton College
To develop and deliver culturally relevant drama and visual arts training for worship leaders in prison settings as a means of promoting a vivid awareness and heartfelt response to God.
Rainbow Mennonite Church
To provide music, worship, dance, and art opportunities to train young congregants for participation and leadership in worship.
Trinity Presbyterian Church
To connect a theology of worship and the arts with the mission of the church through a monthly series of ecumenical worship services partnering with local homeless shelters, hospitals, and nursing homes.
University Congregational United Church of Christ
To enter a church-wide intergenerational exploration of the gospel through the arts of drama, song, dance, storytelling, and sculpture and to integrate these artistic forms in worship experiences through the seasons of the church year.
LaSalle Street Church
To create opportunities for the congregation to cultivate a culture of story-telling – exploring new ways to tell and listen to scriptural narratives, and finding linkages between scriptural narratives and our individual life journeys – by engaging in movement, puppets, theater, poetry and integrating this creativity into the worship life of the church.