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 promote a more meaningful encounter with God's word in the text and in worshipers' lives by engaging diverse artistic experiences of scripture in worship.
To collaboratively create original liturgy, hymnody, and art for worship that facilitates connection with God in all of life.
To listen to and reflect on students’ experience of worship and to experiment with music, visual art, and space in worship in order to deepen and diversify student leadership and participation.
To enrich the worship life of the congregation by bringing a variety of art forms together in monthly feast services that reflect the beauty and truth of the Triune God.
To invite people into the solemnity and joy of the eucharist by focusing on collaboratively created art.
To explore contextual methods of proclamation in a dinner and spirituality service that facilitates deeper participation of the community in worship.
To educate and empower lay leaders and congregations to understand and embrace the various worship cultures that are part of the Mennonite song tradition in North America.
To develop age-appropriate preschool chapel worship and classroom faith formation by exploring how children worship and connecting little ones' lives to God.
To use worship arts rituals as a tool to cultivate spiritual transformation in the lives of young people.
To nurture community within the congregation and the neighborhood by promoting active participation in worship through the arts and the preached Word.
To break down barriers to full participation in worship by identifying the ways people may be prevented from feeling welcomed or included and creating new practices that welcome all.
To create and pilot participatory intergenerational worship resources that facilitate collaborative worship in a variety of contexts.
