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 develop skilled, confident, and energetic student worship leaders through a comprehensive worship leadership development initiative.
To promote inclusion of African Christians in multiethnic churches in the United States through documentation and teaching of the oral tradition of African Christian choruses.
To strengthen the connection between Christian worship and creation justice by producing worship songs and liturgical resources that encourage deeper love for and connection to God's creation through public worship.
Michelle A. Stinson
To create resources for exploring how “keeping time” with both liturgical and environmental/agrarian seasons can be a means of cultivating and fostering a biblical hope in uncertain times.
To inspire a renewed love of Anglican worship through educational programming and retreats that explore how beauty and poetry reveal God’s truth.
To increase disability awareness and belonging in partner churches by providing resources and strategies for promoting the welcome and inclusion of Christians of all abilities in worshiping communities.
To deepen congregants’ spiritual engagement in worship and to build bridges between the congregation and community though engagement with visual arts and dance, especially with artists who use the church building.
Kyle Dieleman
To encourage preachers through exploration of historical and contemporary Advent preaching to consider how preaching can form people for a life in which pacing, expectations, and longings are recast in light of the kingdom of God.
Lester Ruth
To produce an anthology of curated primary sources to provide easier access to key documents related to the historical development of contemporary praise and worship music.
To promote participation and leadership within Christian communities by diverse students who struggle to see themselves in the Christian story.
HyeRan Kim-Cragg and Mona Tokarek LaFosse
To train international graduate students experiencing the trauma of migration and immigration in practices of trauma-informed worship leading so they can implement the practices in their worshiping communities.
To address the spiritual needs of second-generation Ethiopian American children and youth in a culturally sensitive way through worship, preaching, and teaching that includes them in the life and leadership of the church.
