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.

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University of Notre Dame

Jonathan J. Hehn

To foster appreciation for the worship practices of Presbyterian and Reformed Christians around the world through an anthropological study of Korean and Taiwanese Presbyterian liturgical practices and the dynamic exchange between those church communities and their North American siblings.

Teacher-Scholar
Notre Dame, indiana
2024

University of Notre Dame Folk Choir (2024)

J. J. Wright

To create and workshop an original musico-dramatic composition and production of five scenes from resurrection accounts to enable undergraduate students in the Folk Choir to contemplate healing and forgiveness.

Teacher-Scholar
Notre Dame, indiana
2024

Wheaton College

Donté Ford

To uplift the hymnody of twentieth-century Holiness reformer and prolific hymn-writer Bishop Charles Price Jones, and to reinvigorate its use within and beyond the Black Church through crafting arrangements and featuring them at choral clinics, thus enriching the historical, cultural, and theological breadth of local church choir music and congregational song.

Teacher-Scholar
Wheaton, illinois
2024

Wheaton College

Donté Ford

To uplift the hymnody of twentieth-century Holiness reformer and prolific hymnwriter Bishop Charles Price Jones and to reinvigorate its use within and beyond the Black church by crafting arrangements and featuring them at choral clinics, thus enriching the historical, cultural, and theological breadth of local church choir music and congregational song.

Teacher-Scholar
Wheaton, illinois
2024

Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary

Katie Graber

To help communities critically engage questions about why we sing diverse music and how we can do it justly by collaboratively creating a hymnal companion-style volume that aids North American communities as they sing songs from around the world. 

Teacher-Scholar
Elkhart, indiana
2023

Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary

Carolyn B. Helsel

To encourage appreciation among Christian worshipers for our Jewish neighbors and reduce anti-Semitism by creating videos and written resources aimed at equipping preachers to approach biblical references to Jewish people through a framework of gratitude for our shared religious heritage.

Teacher-Scholar
Austin, texas
2023

Baylor University

Shannan Baker

To pilot a contemporary worship training program focused on discovering the best educational methods for teaching contemporary worship, by engaging in workshops on technology, music, and theology. 

Teacher-Scholar
Waco, texas
2023

Belmont University

Adam Perez

To assess the distribution and reception of popular worship songs and the relationship between the worship music industry and local worship practitioners, in order to equip practitioners with a deeper understanding of the forces that impact their worship song selections. 

Teacher-Scholar
Nashville, tennessee
2023

Columbia Theological Seminary

Jake Myers

To create a series of free, open-access homiletical education videos that empower and equip bi-vocational preachers for more faithful, creative, and transformative service to the Church. 

Teacher-Scholar
Decatur, georgia
2023

Cornerstone University

Eunice Hong

To gain a better understanding of Asian American women clergy’s experiences of congregational and worship leadership, exploring the kinds of resources that would support their flourishing. 

Teacher-Scholar
Grand Rapids, michigan
2023

Dallas International University (2023)

Beth Argot & Kayleen Bobbitt

To conduct fieldwork exploring the use of pilgrimage, movement, and the arts in worship as means of healing trauma and encouraging spiritual integration (knowing God with both our heads and our hearts).

Teacher-Scholar
Dallas, texas
2023

Denver Seminary

Michelle A. Stinson

To explore the topic of time through biblical/theological, environmental, and agrarian reflections, probing how God’s care for creation as experienced in nature’s seasons and agriculture’s rhythms offers renewed hope as we emerge from an extended season of Covid-tide.   

Teacher-Scholar
Littleton, colorado
2023