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.
Dordt University
Jeremy Perigo
Jeremy Perigo
To investigate emerging issues in liturgical theology through podcast and video interviews with scholars and practitioners, in order to empower local ministry leaders and churches to discern theologically and imagine liturgically the characteristics of Christian worship in their own context.
Duke University Divinity School
John Ruth
John Ruth
To survey the present state of college and seminary instruction on the theology, history, and practice of contemporary praise and worship, and to engage scholars in conversation around recent and emerging scholarship on contemporary worship in order to create a podcast series and a curriculum guide for worship educators and church practitioners.
Eden Theological Seminary
In response to the challenges of the pandemic, to use the Psalms to explore lament, grief, and resilience by engaging in liturgical arts that tell worshipers' stories, name challenges and losses, and cultivate healing and hope.
First Presbyterian Church of Brooklyn
To develop best practices for engaging and uniting online and in-person worshipers in formative and participative worship.
Fort Washington Collegiate Church
To emulate Jesus’ love and concern by renewing worship in light of the gifts, needs and justice concerns of the transgender community and queer communities of color.
Fuller Seminary/Brehm Center
Maria Eugenia Fee
Maria Eugenia Fee
To establish and facilitate a series of arts-based leadership development workshops for pastors and church leaders in order to introduce them to the formational value of the arts in worship and invigorate arts-based worship practices in their faith communities.
Goshen College
John D. Roth
John D. Roth
To foster ecumenical conversations about baptism by hosting seminars for pastors and lay leaders using a newly created accessible study guide on the recent groundbreaking report of the international Lutheran-Mennonite-Roman Catholic Trilateral Dialogue on Baptism.
Hope College
Lindsey Hanson
Lindsey Hanson
To investigate emerging theological issues in worship with scholars and practitioners by reflecting on a cross-disciplinary collaboration of dance, architectural design, and film within a worship space, and empowering local ministry leaders and churches to discern theologically and imagine liturgically the characteristics of Christian worship in their own context by engaging curated online media.
Hope College Campus Ministries
To engage in a liturgical and theological exploration of the biblical language and metaphor of friendship as a resource for the spiritual growth of the college community and for exploring issues of worship and justice.
Knox College
Sarah Travis
Sarah Travis
To create and field-test a preaching and liturgical resource addressing reconciliation among Settler Canadians and Indigenous peoples for the Presbyterian Church in Canada, based on two Calls to Action from the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
Lee University
Christopher A. Stephenson
Christopher A. Stephenson
To develop a pneumatological perspective on baptism and the Lord's Supper that nurtures vibrant experiences of the Holy Spirit within traditional liturgical forms and practices, and to encourage substantial Pentecostal contributions to ecumenical dialogue on the sacraments.
Lyons Evangelical Church
To enrich support and care for the bereaved by developing liturgical practices that sustain the faith of grief-stricken worshipers while remaining vibrant and inclusive of the whole church community.