1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 2026 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 pursue justice by enabling worship artists from the United States and Palestine to create rich liturgies and songs that reflect the lived realities of Palestinian Christians.
To engage in synodal listening processes to help young adults reconnect to Christian worship and faith formation and develop leadership skills, discernment, and confidence in sharing testimonies.
To equip university students to bear witness to God’s presence through personal storytelling in worship.
To strengthen worship leadership by implementing a leadership development project consisting of workshops, mentoring, and worship celebrations.
To foster worship that welcomes a diverse community by developing an inclusive-language hymnal that includes multiple languages, promotes faithful anti-racism, and reflects the concerns and style preferences of young people.
To create a dinner church, led by student leaders who co-create the liturgy and liturgical arts, to be an alternative and collaborative worshiping community for young adults who are weary of traditional church spaces.
To equip rural pastors and worship leaders by providing training and building networks for support and creative exchange.
To strengthen worship life by exploring how diverse worship traditions shape communion with God through Christ across cultures using the primary expressions of art and music.
To invite all ages into creative, participatory worship by facilitating experiential worship opportunities with a worship lab and a collective art project.
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.
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.
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.
