1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2024 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 enlarge worshipers’ understanding of living a sacramental life to include praying through acts of earth care and environmental justice, through crafting creation-focused liturgies, hosting guest speakers, and encouraging environmentally ethical living.
To prepare emerging pastors with contemporary preaching skills by engaging in a leadership development curriculum that uses retiring pastors as mentors.
To promote appreciation for the diversity of gifts in the congregation and empower worshipers to live out their faith within and beyond the walls of the church by introducing visual arts, liturgical dance, and a choral program within worship services.
To deepen worshipers' experience of the beauty and majesty of God in this church's unique space by engaging with the stories of the art glass windows lining the worship space.
To welcome, represent, and empower people of color and young adults in liturgical and musical leadership by expanding celebrations of nine major feasts and fasts with diverse musical expression and development of thematic seasonal worship series with reflection guides.
To promote active intergenerational participation in worship by developing and promoting a homiletical method that encourages wondering, storytelling, and godly play.
To create an expression of worship that increases authenticity, reduces barriers, and provides diverse forms of music and speech by engaging in interviews, focus groups, and team studies that expand theological and aesthetic understanding of worship.
To encourage dance as a form of prayer and sacred art in worship through the development of collaborative cross-cultural workshops, meditative performances, and education materials.
To engage the neighborhood community with radical hospitality through creative worship by establishing an arts residency program and community arts events.
To enable the congregation and community to integrate worship into their daily lives by making the cathedral space available and facilitating varied acts of worship for people to engage in the space.
To translate and publish a hymnal of bilingual Kreyol-English songs for use by new Haitian-Americans and neighboring church communities as a way to welcome and embrace one another through congregational song.
To explore the role of music in Orthodox theological education in the midst of significant cultural and demographic changes and to develop a multicultural chant handbook that reflects the theological vision and demographic of the community and will facilitate spiritual formation.
