Worshiping Communities awarded Vital Worship Grants for 2019 by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship

These projects have a variety of emphases—visual arts, storytelling, multicultural worship, digital media, the Lord’s Supper, and more—but have as a common purpose a desire to both deepen people’s understanding of worship and strengthen practices of public worship and faith formation.

Kathy Smith, leader of the Vital Worship Grants Team, said, “We are delighted to join with another group of churches, schools and organizations to learn about and engage in new practices of worship. We were grateful for a large number of excellent proposals and are eager to facilitate their learning and ours, regarding worship across North America.”

This year’s recipients include 34 congregations, three elementary and/or secondary schools, two colleges and universities, three seminaries, and nine other groups, including five church collaboratives, two parachurch disability ministries, a military ministry, and a storytelling ministry. They also represent 23 different Christian denominations, 22 states and two Canadian provinces.

Each grant (ranging from $7,000 to $18,000) will fund a year-long project beginning in June that promotes vital worship and faith formation. John Witvliet, director of the CICW, believes that the 2019 projects will help the Worship Institute in its goals to enhance the scholarly study of Christian worship and the renewal of worshiping communities across North America and beyond.

“We learn a tremendous amount from these programs,” he said. “We look forward to sharing insights from these projects with a larger audience in our future programming over the next several years."

This June, project directors and representatives of all 51 grants will gather on Calvin’s campus to dialogue not only with CICW staff, but also with 14 recipients of new grants to Teacher-Scholars as well as recipients the 2018 Worshiping Communities grants, who will come to campus to share the results of their year-long projects at a poster session that is open to the public (5:00-6:30 p.m., Wednesday, June 26, 2019). 

“The grants event is always an energizing time of conversation and sharing stories,” said Smith. “Every year, some attendees are inspired to write their own proposals for new grant projects. We look forward to receiving those applications for the next round of grants” (due January 10, 2020).

Since it began in the year 2000, the Vital Worship Grants Program has now awarded 887 grants to churches, schools and organizations across North America for projects that generate thoughtfulness and energy for public worship and faith formation at the local, grass-roots level. An advisory board of pastors and teachers from a variety of backgrounds assists in the grant selections, and the program is generously supported by Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc. Founded in 1937, the Endowment’s major areas of programming are religion, education, and community development.

For more information on the grants program, including a complete list of this year’s grants recipients, please see worship.calvin.edu/grants.