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 explore ways the worshiping community’s values can be embodied in communal worship practices that shape worshipers' engagement with God, one another, and God’s world.
To explore and experiment with different formats of intergenerational worship in order to foster cross-generational community and deeper connection with God.
Mimi Larson
To gather wisdom from ministry leaders who thoughtfully engage children in worship, seeking to better theological and pedagogical understanding of how children make meaning of their worship experiences.
To engage the local community in theological reflection on worship that deepens worshiper’s experience of God by enacting the word of God in many contexts.
To train worshipers in improvisational theater techniques in order to create a variety of worship experiences that facilitate intergenerational participation in worship.
To promote engagement with scripture and the Christian year in worship by reflecting on the life and teachings of Christ through stained glass art.
Richard Voelz
To create and field-test a workbook that will equip pastors to walk with adolescent preachers as they prepare to preach in public worship and other congregational contexts.
Marjorie Snipes
To examine a diverse range of Christian churches in the rural South and identify newly-emerging ecumenical practices, including shifts in ritual practice, educational activities, and cooperation in joint mission.
To pilot an interactive worship experience that fosters practices of justice, stewardship, and vocational exploration, and facilitates personal and communal encountering of God.
Ronald Rienstra
To write a book comprised of brief essays that explore the deep patterns in worship as well as in worship's constituent parts (ordo, scripture, sermon, song, prayer, action).
To foster unity among different African ethnic communities and awareness of varying worship needs and experiences by facilitating collaboration among worship leaders at African ethnic churches.
Monique M. Ingalls
To conduct ethnographic fieldwork of interethnic gospel choirs and to identity promising strategies for how worship music can build "convivial" interethnic congregational cultures.
