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 express diverse, global, and ecumenical worship through education, practice, collaboration, and community involvement in training seminars, cross-disciplinary conversations, and liturgical art.
To explore the creative use of the existing worship space as well as to define and expand the usage of that space through intergenerational study and dialogue on worship.
To empower young people to add rhythm, melody, and harmony to familiar and favorite Scripture passages with the goal of incorporating the resulting music in weekly worship services.
To collaborate as a group of pastors and youth leaders in urban Grand Rapids to learn about the dynamics of worship in relationship to urban youth and hip hop and to explore the possibilities of incorporating their discoveries into the wider worshiping body.
To create multigenerational worship teams that engage in an educational process to learn from each other and work together to plan and lead weekly worship services.
To increase understanding of Christian worship in diverse settings, improve worship planning and leadership skills, strengthen spiritual life leadership, and help sustain worship practices across cycles of leadership transition through an interdisciplinary process of reflection and learning, skills training, and resource gathering that will result in a compilation of songs, prayers, readings, and testimonies contributed by the faculty, staff and students of King’s University.
To develop a training program that will prepare people to teach the Leadership Program for Musicians, a series of classes on music in worship, to ecumenical groups throughout the United States.
To offer worship services and discussion of scripture led by clergy, congregation members and seminary students for homeless men and women, many of whom have substance abuse problems or are chronically mentally ill.
To train youth and children in planning, leading, and facilitating intergenerational worship services that integrate art, dance, drama, scripture, story, and song.
To train congregants to tell both the biblical stories and their own faith story in fresh and lively ways through drama, images, movement, and storytelling in corporate worship.
To collaborate with congregations of all denominations through a series of workshops focusing on music in worship, biblical storytelling, liturgical art, and contemplative methods that allow all congregations to share their talents and best worship practices.
To design a process of catechism for those seeking baptism or confirmation in six diverse United Methodist congregations such that both the catechumenate and the congregations are renewed through the Easter Vigil celebration.
