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.

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Life Pacific University

Steven Felix-Jager

To support church practitioners in their aesthetic, pastoral, and theological deliberations about congregational worship music by addressing multiple modes of discernment, with the goal of leading to deeper, more empathetic understanding of worship traditions. 

Teacher-Scholar
San Dimas, california
2023

Loyola Marymount University

Layla A. Karst

To explore the pastoral and theological implications of online pandemic Liturgies of the Word, focusing especially on the translation of ritual practices between off-line and online worship and on emerging understandings of ecclesial leadership and authority. 

Teacher-Scholar
Los Angeles, california
2023

Made to Flourish

To help church leaders learn how to develop worship, discipleship, and missional practices that connect with congregants’ Monday-through-Saturday lives through skill mapping, a cohort program, and a three-day intensive.

Worshiping Communities
Overland Park, kansas
2023

Mission United Presbyterian Church

To equip a new generation of worship leaders with musical skills and vocal techniques to foster the creation of worship experiences that connect with and reach out to people from the surrounding community.  

Worshiping Communities
San Francisco, california
2023

New Bethel AME

To engage youth and young adults by remembering and retelling stories of the Black church through development of a lectionary, worship guide, and Sunday School curriculum emphasizing the seven principles of Kwanzaa.

Worshiping Communities
Lithonia, georgia
2023

Providence College

Daria Spezzano

To draw on the teachings of Thomas Aquinas to provide tools for disaffiliated Catholic college students to engage the goodness, truth, and beauty of God in worship as a response to their search for meaning. 

Teacher-Scholar
Providence, rhode island
2023

Restauración Los Ángeles

To develop a new generation of church musicians and worship leaders who, in addition to typical roles, could acquire skills required to compose new congregational songs and to produce new worship music. 

Worshiping Communities
Los Angeles, california
2023