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 inspire the prophetic imagination of worshipers and to promote appreciation for God’s gift of beauty through the creation of an artist-in-residence program.
To create a network of reflective practitioners of multicultural worship in the North American context who will learn from and support each other and discern a set of best practices that will result in a set of published resources.
To build Christ-centered unity amid a fractured and polarized society by teaching about and promoting shared foundational Christian practices, including the sacraments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the engagement of scripture.
Eunice Hong
To help leaders of churches and institutions of Christian higher education better minister to multicultural communities by researching the experiences of people who attend multicultural churches.
Donté Ford
To uplift the hymnody of twentieth-century Holiness reformer and prolific hymn-writer Bishop Charles Price Jones, and to reinvigorate its use within and beyond the Black Church through crafting arrangements and featuring them at choral clinics, thus enriching the historical, cultural, and theological breadth of local church choir music and congregational song.
Donté Ford
To uplift the hymnody of twentieth-century Holiness reformer and prolific hymnwriter Bishop Charles Price Jones and to reinvigorate its use within and beyond the Black church by crafting arrangements and featuring them at choral clinics, thus enriching the historical, cultural, and theological breadth of local church choir music and congregational song.
To expand multicultural worship practices that better reflect the diverse worshiping community through retreats and educational opportunities.
To revitalize the worship experience in three congregations who share the same worship space by expanding the use of worship arts and musical forms so that all may engage in worship that is healthy, vital, and spiritually engaging.
To engage ten congregations in developing a tool that encourages each to move beyond speaking primarily about personal preferences in worship and to embrace deeper ways of speaking about each congregation’s unique strengths and callings.
To implement a mentoring program for worship pastors that focuses on developing liturgical and everyday worship practices to encourage creation care as a way of loving our neighbors and God our creator.
Katie Graber
To help communities critically engage questions about why we sing diverse music and how we can do it justly by collaboratively creating a hymnal companion-style volume that aids North American communities as they sing songs from around the world.
To promote the inclusion of minority worship leaders in chapel services through inviting diverse guest leaders and emphasizing the theological potential of minoritized worship expressions in seminary courses and in a colloquium.
