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.
Holy Cross Lutheran Church (2022)
To deepen, enrich, and connect the individual and corporate worship life of congregants by drawing on the devotional practices of the saints throughout history in aesthetically rich and cohesive worship experiences that have corresponding practices which engage the senses and foster embodied devotional practices at home.
Hope College
Kate Finley
Kate Finley
To explore how public church practices, including sermons, corporate prayer, and other worship practices reflect various understandings and interpretations of mental disorders and to construct a practically applicable online resource that will enable congregations to be more inclusive of those who experience mental disorder and enriched by the unique perspectives they embody.
Hope College
David Keep
David Keep
To deepen worshipers' theology and spiritual life by creating an online Advent calendar that features visual art and music, and by holding art interpretation events and panel discussions in which participants engage theological truths—particularly the incarnation—through the arts.
Iglesia Cristiana de Deltona
To implement a project that promotes all worshipers’ full, conscious, and active participation through theological reflection and educational experiences and to create opportunities for interactive intergenerational worship.
Iglesia de Dios Casa Ebenezer
To deepen the congregation’s knowledge of worship as a lifestyle and the practice of a Biblical worship that includes people from different generations and with different abilities.
Iglesia Luterana Príncipe de Paz
To create a children’s choir to include children in the church’s worship services and enhance the congregational worship experience.
Iglesia Metodista Unida Cristo
To train church leaders to develop fully bilingual worship services, Bible studies, small group meetings, and church school.
Iglesia One Family Church
To develop training workshops in the arts to educate the congregation on the meaning of integral worship and to develop practical workshops on music and singing for worship leaders to enhance bilingual public worship.
Iglesia Presbiteriana El Redentor
To educate the congregation on the twelve confessions of faith using the five senses in public worship services.
Iglesia Vida y Esperanza
To develop a program to involve children and adolescents in public worship services and other ministry activities of the church aimed at reaching families with children in the neighborhood.
IMU Nuevo Pacto
To study and apply Biblical teachings and multigenerational storytelling to enhance intergenerational worship practices and strengthen church unity.
Indiana Wesleyan University (2022)
To engage the history, stories, and traditions of Gospel music to better equip the Gospel Choir for leadership and to expand the chapel experience for all students.