1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2025 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 foster ecumenical connections among twelve churches by participating in the creation of pottery to form the faith of worshipers as the theological imagery of God as the potter whose hands continue to mold and reform is carried into the worship of each church and into ecumenical worship gatherings.
To deeply integrate worship and other congregational activities so that the church’s engagement of cross-cultural relationships, education, justice, and collaboration weaves seamlessly with worship.
To enhance our bilingual worship service experience to impact our local church family and the online community, becoming a multicultural church.
To involve the children’s ministry and the youth ministry in public worship.
To enrich worship by engaging the arts in order to promote healing and understanding in the midst of social injustices.
To promote and teach social justice-centered worship through proclamation, practice, and protest.
To curate art and liturgy into an experience of Stations of the Resurrection that will promote a deeper engagement with the season of Eastertide and the grace of Christ's resurrection.
To engage in hymn singing in worship that facilitates the participation of worshipers of multiple abilities, generations, and languages.
To engage in biblical and theological reflection, practical training, and collaboration to initiate chapel worship that promotes individual and collective formation of students around the core values of the institution.
In response to the challenges of the pandemic, to use the Psalms to explore lament, grief, and resilience by engaging in liturgical arts that tell worshipers' stories, name challenges and losses, and cultivate healing and hope.
To develop best practices for engaging and uniting online and in-person worshipers in formative and participative worship.
To emulate Jesus’ love and concern by renewing worship in light of the gifts, needs and justice concerns of the transgender community and queer communities of color.
