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 promote healthy spiritual formation for Korean American youth and young adults in New England through resource development, worship retreats, and spiritual formation discipleship cohorts.
To deepen understandings of racial justice and reconciliation in the church by using theater, visual art, and literature to guide conversations on this topic.
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.
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.
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.
To help students develop spiritual formation practices and build Christian community by mentoring student leaders and creating a weekly worship opportunity focused on prayer and lectio divina scripture study.
To increase participation of laity across generations in planning and leading worship by strengthening the choir as a vehicle for leadership and formation.
To encourage meditation and spiritual disciplines that will help congregants center themselves on God and deepen practices of embodied engagement.
To employ liturgical worship, singing, music, and other learning activities such as book and movie discussion to promote racial healing and community.
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.
To create worship resources that will teach a biblical theology of work to narrow the gap between gathered times of worship and the other six days of the week.
To encourage a deep and ongoing engagement with scripture by singing, teaching, and praying the psalms of ascent as an intergenerational community.
