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 create a sense of narrative, memory, and time by focusing on the practices of lectio divina, prayer, study, and service through a series of workshops and collaborative projects on using word and image in worship.
To encourage interaction with scripture and the preached word through journals, lectio divina, prayer, inductive Bible studies, and Asian art with particular attention to unity across ages and cultures in a traditional Japanese American congregation.
To foster intergenerational participation in weekly worship through the development and integration of the gifts of the entire congregation through visual arts, music, multimedia, and drama.
To improve preaching and listening skills by forming small worship groups that will participate in Bible study, research for a worship series, planning services, and preparation of devotional materials for the congregation that connect the themes of the worship services with daily life.
To increase cultural awareness and communication among diverse community groups through a collaborative focus of local churches on diversity, hospitality, liturgical space, drama, music, and dance.
To design multi-sensory, interactive, communal worship experiences that bridge the church community with the diverse, emerging, post modern culture.
To create resources for those unable to worship with the gathered Sunday congregation through a collaborative study of church history, ecclesiology, and liturgy.
To connect weekly worship with daily living by encouraging personal and family Bible study and discussion that will be further explored through the Sunday sermon, drama, and congregational discussions.
To study scripture, examine traditions steeped in liturgical mystery and awe, create visual arts, and plan Lenten services of contemplation with lay leadership.
To design contemporary worship services that are planned collaboratively, are biblically based, proclaim the gospel through Word and Sacrament, and send people out to share God's grace.
To foster hospitality by creating multi-cultural and intergenerational worship planning and leadership through a collaborative study of worship, tradition, and culture.
To share the richness of the experience, history, and spirituality of the African American Catholic tradition with the local community through worship services and workshops.
