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.
Melody Escobar
To explore worship practices that foster belonging among marginalized populations through an ethnographic study of an interdenominational church that worships under a highway overpass.
To integrate psalms into corporate and private worship habits in an ecumenical setting, primarily through guided conversations and scholarly-artistic engagement with university students and local pastors.
To deepen engagement with Jesus’ teachings by creating songs, liturgies, and visual artwork in response to Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount for use in congregational worship and art-making events.
To help students develop spiritual formation practices and build Christian community by mentoring student leaders and creating a weekly worship opportunity focused on prayer and lectio divina scripture study.
To increase participation of laity across generations in planning and leading worship by strengthening the choir as a vehicle for leadership and formation.
Becki Graves
To celebrate the diversity of Christianity through exploring the contemplative, Holiness, Evangelical, social justice, charismatic, and incarnational expressions of the Church as part of the process of creating original artistic, poetic, and musical stations of the cross to share in local churches.
Shively Smith
To showcase and provide access to the scriptural interpretations of nineteenth-century African American women by curating a web-based lectionary resource.
To encourage meditation and spiritual disciplines that will help congregants center themselves on God and deepen practices of embodied engagement.
Debra Rienstra
To provide inspirational and practical examples of how churches and individual Christians can address the climate crisis in podcast interviews of Christian communities who have adapted their mission and practices toward a more just and sustainable world.
Tyler Greenway
To compare the intended and actual outcomes of sermons and homilies by studying how listeners respond to preaching in their behavior, emotions, and beliefs.
Daniel Jesse
To investigate how the lyrics and melodies of contemporary Christian music influence the way worshipers perceive and articulate their feelings in relation to their faith, with a particular focus on the way sadness is expressed in worship.
To employ liturgical worship, singing, music, and other learning activities such as book and movie discussion to promote racial healing and community.
