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.
Peletah Ministries (2017)
To promote healing through trauma-informed worship that engages worshipers with the Psalms as expressions of the experiences of God’s people.
Praise Assembly of God
To train worshipers to connect their faith stories with the story of God, while facilitating the active participation of all.
Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church
To engage in collaborative worship planning and leading that deepens the multicultural expressions of the congregation through visual and musical arts.
Red Mountain Community Church
To deeply engage the worship postures of the Psalms as a model for engaging God in every aspect of life.
Roberts Wesleyan College
To increase communal engagement in campus worship by learning together about the purpose of worship and by equipping collaborative planning teams.
Saint John's School of Theology and Seminary
To promote vibrant musical expressions in worship by learning skills for leading liturgical music from a variety of cultures.
St John's Episcopal Church
To develop a missional theology and practice of worship that facilitates engagement with the community.
St Philothea Greek Orthodox Church
To increase worshipers' experience of the beauty of God by training leaders in Byzantine Orthodox Chant and Iconography.
University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics Spiritual Services
To create a space for people affected by health crises to engage in worship practices that connect them to their worshiping communities .
Wake Forest University School of Divinity (2017)
To engage students and partner congregations in collaborative worship planning as a spiritual practice.
Bostwick Lake Congregational Church (UCC)
To connect public worship with other ministries of the church, integrate those ministries with worship, and explore connections between worship, daily life, and faith development.
Cathedral in the Night
To equip lay leaders to shape liturgy for an outdoor service designed to extend a ministry of hospitality in the community.