1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA
On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 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 develop liturgy and multicultural worship so as to portray the congregation’s unity in a diverse community by considering language, dance, media, visual art, music, attitude, understanding, practice, leadership, and congregational participation.
To equip area church choirs to lead worship spiritually and musically within their respective churches through a year-long process that will include a weekend of workshops, rehearsals, and worship.
To create new, engaging and enduring habits of worship through a study of visual arts in worship with an emphasis on communion, baptism and the unity of believers.
To achieve a clearer and deeper understanding of the aim, purpose, and components of worship services by developing worship leadership within the congregation and introducing the congregation to new music, forms of prayers, and liturgy.
To train Asian and Anglo Americans of all ages to better plan, lead, and participate in a newly established multicultural, multigenerational worship service through discussion groups, liturgical art, retreats, and a conference.
To nurture active, intergenerational corporate worship by training parents, grandparents and church school leaders and providing resources for them to promote the daily worship of God in children’s lives in the context of the liturgical year.
To train and encourage clergy and lay leaders in African-American churches by offering a four-day conference on worship and a pre-conference study related to worship for those who will be attending the conference.
To create litanies, choral readings, and scripture dramas to facilitate the dramatic nature of worship through the collaboration of lay theologians and artists of all ages within the congregation.
To deepen the understanding and practice of healing as a part of worship life in a community surrounded by large institutions dedicated to healing and health, through forums, workshops, retreats, and worship experiences for lay leaders and congregation members and weekly healing services for the community.
To develop a deeper understanding about the theology and practice of worship, educate and train worship leaders from the church’s diverse membership, and explore ways art can enhance the multicultural worship experience in an urban setting.
To explore the shifting cultural contexts of worship and to identify a theology of worship that is rooted in the past and open to the future, through a yearlong consultation on worship leadership with student leaders of the Hastings College Chapel and local pastors, musicians, and lay leaders.
To study hospitality as a model for worship and missions through workshops and Bible studies with members of the three congregations who worship in the same sanctuary: Jan Hus, Indonesian Presbyterian Church, and St. John’s Independent Catholic Community.
