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 study and develop trauma-informed worship practices in order to provide hospitality, healing, and home to those who have been harmed by the church.
To empower lay leaders for the ministry of proclamation and encourage a diversity of voices in the pulpit by developing a lay preacher training program.
To deepen theological identity across diverse ages and ethnicities by implementing an Acts 2:42 project focused on engaging God’s Word, building community, and praying together.
To re-enliven drive-in worship services by exploring embodied worship practices and to encourage deeper connections in worship and with those who gather for worship.
To improve corporate worship by integrating spiritual formation, education, preaching, arts and worship, and evangelism.
To nurture personal and communal faith through workshops and creative events that encourage members of the worshiping community to grow closer to God and to each other.
To promote intergenerational faith formation by teaching about baptism, communion, and the Christian year.
To nurture a richer rhythm of weekly worship, seasonal gatherings, special events, and creative collaborations, all rooted in scripture’s counter-cultural narratives, so that worshipers may more fully embody the transforming power of the gospel.
To connect faith to action through cycles of education and reflection, liturgical creativity, and discipleship practices that aim to address homelessness and hunger.
To bring together a longstanding Presbyterian worshiping community and its Latino neighbors through the development of culturally blended worship services.
To become a more connected faith community that listens and communicates with compassion in worship and in interactions with the community.
To develop student worship leaders through education and coaching and to foster opportunities for students to participate in multiple church models, both off campus in local congregations and on campus in student-led services and monthly church feasts.
