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 create sacred space by experimenting with seating arrangement, various forms of artwork, and sensory experiences in innovative and interactive ways, while being responsive to the needs of ministry during the pandemic.
To educate the congregation on a holistic understanding of worship and its intersection with all church ministries and to use drama in public worship and evangelism.
To invite worshipers into reflection on traditions of liturgical art that facilitates engagement with wonder and the beauty of God, culminating in the collaborative creation of paraments for the worship space.
To deepen, enrich, and connect the individual and corporate worship life of congregants by drawing on the devotional practices of the saints throughout history in aesthetically rich and cohesive worship experiences that have corresponding practices which engage the senses and foster embodied devotional practices at home.
To implement a project that promotes all worshipers’ full, conscious, and active participation through theological reflection and educational experiences and to create opportunities for interactive intergenerational worship.
To deepen the congregation’s knowledge of worship as a lifestyle and the practice of a Biblical worship that includes people from different generations and with different abilities.
To create a children’s choir to include children in the church’s worship services and enhance the congregational worship experience.
To train church leaders to develop fully bilingual worship services, Bible studies, small group meetings, and church school.
To develop training workshops in the arts to educate the congregation on the meaning of integral worship and to develop practical workshops on music and singing for worship leaders to enhance bilingual public worship.
To educate the congregation on the twelve confessions of faith using the five senses in public worship services.
To develop a program to involve children and adolescents in public worship services and other ministry activities of the church aimed at reaching families with children in the neighborhood.
To study and apply Biblical teachings and multigenerational storytelling to enhance intergenerational worship practices and strengthen church unity.
