1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University
© 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 create worship experiences that are Spirit-led, participatory, and deeply rooted in the gospel by equipping worship leaders and congregants to integrate storytelling as a sacred practice within weekly worship.
To produce new worship music centered on themes of justice, contemplation, and peace through a songwriting retreat embedded within a fellowship program.
To create worship resources for Latino/a congregations that will foster resilience and trust in God's justice, informed by a theology of social holiness and conducive to expressing both faith and protest.
To nurture and expand the youth praise dance ministry to promote sustained spiritual growth, leadership development, and deeper participation of children in the worship life of the church.
To implement a year-long worship discipleship program for youth that uses spoken word, liturgical dance, storytelling, and youth-led worship to equip students to explore faith, express testimony, and lead in worship, promoting spiritual growth and generational engagement within the life of the church.
To more fully engage children in corporate worship and to uncover ways to make singing, worship rituals, and community life more inclusive of all ages.
To promote racial healing and to become a more multiethnic, multicultural, and multigenerational congregation by developing multicultural worship expressions and learning activities.
Erin Raffety
To equip worshiping communities to recognize and lift up leaders with disabilities in church contexts by working with Christian leaders to model inclusive leadership practices.
To launch an intergenerational worship formation project pairing older mentors and students to learn and model prayer, worship, and scripture reading to foster deeper and lasting spiritual disciplines and a sustainable culture of vibrant faith expression.
To support the worship of people with dementia and varied disabilities by collaborating with neighboring churches to host workshops that encourage and develop accessible, sensory-friendly worship practices.
To encourage vulnerability and authentic self- and cultural expression in worship by creating space to share new songs, artwork, and testimonies in worship.
To foster robust and nuanced dialogue inside and outside the church, to cultivate generous and durable habits of patience and mercy, and to help recover concern for neighbors through artist commissions, group study, writing, conversation, hospitality, and friendships related to the topic of shalom.
