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 learn about how the design of a worship space teaches, invites, inspires, and connects in order to foster versatile, multigenerational, mission-focused, biblical worship in a growing rural church.
To explore biblical themes of justice and peacemaking through education, fellowship, and theological reflection and to express these themes in corporate worship such that they lead to community service.
To gather information and establish a common set of expectations and values for worship services, to identify planning models that work within the framework of shared responsibility, and to implement these guidelines and models in the long-range planning of a year of worship services.
To introduce African Church to Western liturgical concepts and to introduce Western religious communities to the African concept of community worship and daily life through a five week series that focuses on five basic elements of worship, including planning and creating music, dance, sermons, testimonies, dramas, oral story telling, and artwork by various ages in the congregation that echo African cultural traditions, and also through intercessory prayer for Africa, the national leadership of Africa, victims of HIV-AIDS, the economic development of Africa, and the Christian church in Africa.
To explore worship renewal through a collaboration of seminary students, pastors, lay persons, and other ministry professionals from various racial, ethnic, and cultural communities during a pastoral leadership conference.
To encourage continuity of worship practices in daily life by studying with local pastors, educating and training congregational leaders in Adult Sunday School, presenting a monthly drama that focuses on particular practices to encourage the development of that habit in personal life, and designing and displaying monthly banners to reinforce each practice.
To examine historic traditions of African American worship and incorporate them into worship services, through a process that includes 40 ministry leaders who will participate in a 13-week Bible study, retreat, seminars, and a citywide worship service.
To advance the development of lay worship leadership in a multicultural setting by training lay leaders, creating a model for worship leadership training that can be applied in other multicultural settings and offering congregational workshops on worship.
To develop skills of listening, training and creating in order to design meaningful worship for the “Millennial generation.”
To cultivate an environment that will empower students to explore and discover authentic forms of liturgical expression and sacred worship through visits to other worshiping communities, workshops, retreats, and mentors who train students in various aspects of leading worship.
To teach children the structure of worship, develop their skills for leading various aspects of worship, provide them with experiences of various worship-related arts, and work with them to prepare worship services through Summer Worship, Arts, and Music Camps.
To develop a 28-day curriculum to teach and examine habits of adoration, confession and assurance, thanksgiving, and supplication in worship planning and preaching, prayer services, Sunday School lessons for all ages, Wednesday evening history lessons on a historical or contemporary person who exemplifies a specific habit, small group lessons, and personal or family devotions.
