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 engage the entire congregation, through a retread and study, in a discussion of Reformed worship with the intent of constructing new forms of worship which will be meaningful and attractive to the entire congregation, especially to young families.
To sponsor a two-day conference on worship for small to mid size congregations.
To deepen worship experiences in small, rural congregations through training of worship leaders-including teens, enhancing worship environments, and culminating in an Art As Worship Festival for the community.
To teach congregations the fundamentals of designing the worship life of a community that include people of all ages, particularly children and youth, in ways that are engaging, participatory and meaningful.
To plan a conference which will educate and inspire young musicians to discover old hymns whose texts express their faith and to use their musical gifts to set those texts to music that resonates with their children.
To develop teaching materials on contemporary musical settings of the Psalms, with an emphasis on music from Africa and Latin America, and to make these available to the wider church community.
To develop a program which will meet the needs of small congregations for competent musicians to lead worship and congregational song, and to identify resources for effective music ministry.
To renew worship through a process of study, implementing new worship formats, evaluation and sharing with other similar congregations which are multi-cultural, interracial, and intergenerational.
To offer a two-day regional conference and exhibit in worship and the arts for Hispanic churches, focusing on how the arts can be used effectively in worship and evangelism.
To sponsor two two-day conferences which will focus on worship in the Reformed tradition and create a context in which churches can discuss worship.
To host Worship and the Visual Arts, a conference to explore the theology of integrating visual arts with congregational worship, especially in the small church.
To collaborate with neighboring churches by sponsoring numerous sessions reflecting on global worship and the normativity of the multicultural church, implementing music, prayers and rituals of African, Central and South American and Asian Christians in worship, and extending hospitality to people from a variety of cultures.
