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.
Advent Lutheran Church
To engage a growing population of people who identify as spiritual, but not religious, and to increase awareness of God's presence in daily life by hosting a monthly worship series that draws connections between familiar secular music and the gospel.
Alamance Presbyterian Church
To cultivate wonder and gratitude for God and creation, to deeply engage lay people in scriptural interpretation, and to empower new leaders within the church by learning and contemplating worship and growing in creative expressions of worship.
Allisonville Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
To develop more inclusive worship practices by first learning about the needs and desires ofthose often excluded from worship and the obstacles they often face, and to then initiate new worship practices.
ARISE Ministries
To promote healthy spiritual formation for Korean American youth and young adults in New England through resource development, worship retreats, and spiritual formation discipleship cohorts.
Atlanta Oikos
To renew the campus ministry's relationship with God's ecological household through the implementation of worship practices that promote better ecological care and stewardship.
Baylor University Chapel
To integrate psalms into corporate and private worship habits in an ecumenical setting, primarily through guided conversations and scholarly-artistic engagement with university students and local pastors.
Bellwether Arts
To deepen engagement with Jesus’ teachings by creating songs, liturgies, and visual artwork in response to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount for use in congregational worship and art-making events.
Bethel Cathedral A.M.E. Church
To increase participation of laity across generations in planning and leading worship by strengthening the choir as a vehicle for leadership and formation.
Calvary on 8th Street Reformed Church
To encourage meditation and spiritual disciplines that will help congregants center themselves on God and deepen practices of embodied engagement
Calvin University
Daniel Jesse
Daniel Jesse
To investigate how the lyrics and melodies of contemporary Christian music influence the way worshipers perceive and articulate their feelings in relation to their faith, with a particular focus on the way sadness is expressed in worship.
Campbell AME Church of Media
To employ liturgical worship, singing, music, and other learning activities such as book and movie discussion to promote racial healing and community.
Campbell University
To engage in spiritual practices of liturgical writing, reflection, prayer, and art to collaboratively create a community prayer book that will facilitate the spiritual growth and well-being of the community through both personal and communal use.