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.
Ebenezer Full Gospel Baptist Church
To sponsor "A Community in Worship Project," a two-day community worship event, bringing together churches across denominational, racial and socioeconomic lines for teaching and learning regarding Christian worship.
Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (2002)
To offer a Liturgy Summer Camp that will provide a basic understanding of liturgy for lay persons in Michigan and Ohio.
First Christian Reformed Church
To renew interest in the use of the pipe organ in worship by conducting workshops for children and youth to introduce them to the organ, workshops for organists, offering a hymn festival and initiating a scholarship program for youth who wish to take organ lessons.
First Presbyterian Church
To develop The Jazz in Worship Project for creating new settings of congregational music that are fitting for Christian worship services and true to the jazz idiom.
Goldboro District AME Zion Church
To offer workshops for clergy, lay leaders, musicians and youth from 26 churches on the Scriptural principles for worship and the use of visual and performing arts in worship services.
Hessel Park Christian Reformed Church
To create visual materials for worship and develop skills in worship and music leaders for integrating contemporary and traditional hymnody in university-oriented congregations.
Hopwood Memorial Christian Church
To introduce a broad spectrum of worship experiences including a variety of music styles, Word-centered worship forms, special services, interracial worship and a worship retreat for a congregation which includes many college and seminary students.
Immanuel Lutheran Church
To institute a series of three cantatas to reaffirm the music and worship values of the congregation, provide a rallying point for evangelism and serve as a stimulus for the development of musical skills of adults and youth.
Jacksonville Campus Ministry
To create and implement campus worship services using a process that facilitates communication between students and faculty, integrates clerical and student/lay leaders in ministry and achieves a deeper understanding of the biblical foundations for worship.
Jubilee Fellowship Christian Reformed Church
To sponsor an arts conference to broaden the experience of the arts in worship in southern Ontario churches by actively involving conference participants in the process of developing the arts for worship.
Keolahou Congregational Hawaiian Church
To establish an independent, interdenominational Pacific Islanders Worship Arts Institute which will help Hawaiian churches embrace worship that celebrates Pacific island culture and honors the integrity of the Christian faith.
Leadership Program for Musicians Serving Small Congregations
To educate individuals who lead worship and music in their churches on the practical aspects of leading worship and music in a church setting and the theological foundation of worship.