The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW) has announced the newest recipients in its twice-yearly Vital Worship, Vital Preaching grant awards. Seventy-seven applicants across the United States and Canada will receive yearlong grants promoting thoughtful, creative projects to strengthen Christian worship practices and preaching.
These new grantees include sixty-six worshiping communities from various Christian traditions and eleven teacher-scholars working in a range of academic disciplines. Eleven of the grants focus on preaching as a key worship practice. Grants of up to $25,000 will fund projects beginning July 1, 2026.
“We’re grateful for another strong batch of grant proposals for projects promoting shalom-shaping worship practices in so many ecumenical and cultural contexts,” said Kathy Smith, CICW’s interim director and the director of personnel and grantmaking programs. “As these new grantees explore, study, and nurture vital worship practices, we look forward to learning with them and witnessing the growth and renewal they bring to congregations and worshiping communities through their research and innovative activities.”
The deadline for the next round of Vital Worship, Vital Preaching proposals is October 15, 2026, for projects slated to begin January 15, 2027.
Grants for Worshiping Communities
The grant program’s Worshiping Communities stream funds projects for organizations such as churches, parishes, denominational ministries, educational institutions, senior living communities, retreat centers, and other nonprofits.
This round of grant proposals included a large number of collaborative and cohort-based projects. Prominent themes included worship and the arts, intergenerational worship, projects centering children and youth, bilingual and intercultural projects, and initiatives engaging both congregations and their communities. Funded projects include topics and activities such as:
- implementing a youth worship arts initiative to form church and community youth for leadership in music, liturgical dance, and participatory worship;
- supporting small, isolated rural churches through collaborative online and in-person gatherings that provide resources, education, and encouragement for preaching and worship;
- recovering contemplative traditions of the African Desert Fathers and Mothers through study, retreats, workshops, and worship experimentation;
- equipping emerging and active preachers—especially those without formal theological training—through a flexible, multilingual cohort model;
- bringing together a university’s liberal arts faculty and spiritual life staff to co-create holistic chapel worship services;
- exploring the importance of place, architecture, and history to promote deeper formation and contemplation through visual and liturgical arts;
- supporting the deepening spiritual life of Orthodoxy in America by holding a nine-hour Byzantine choral vigil to be chanted by four or five choirs from across the country; and
- pairing college students with mentors in preaching, worship arts, and eucharistic baking to develop a new generation of Christian worship leaders.
Grants for Teacher-Scholars
The grant program’s Teacher-Scholar stream recognizes the unique role that researchers in a variety of academic disciplines can play in strengthening Christian worship. Project topics in the new grant cohort include:
- exploring how artificial intelligence and digital culture are reshaping Christian practices in public worship;
- studying how Choral Evensong services can play a missional role in post-Christian contexts;
- examining how the African American preaching tradition can influence congregations’ spiritual and social witness;
- exploring a more collaborative, synodal approach to Catholic liturgical development; and
- examining how worship practices affect people who have experienced pain or exclusion in worship and producing resources to address the pain.
These wide-ranging projects all aim to deepen the church’s understanding of worship and strengthen practices of worship and faith formation in congregations across the United States and Canada.
About Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grants
Since beginning in 2000, the Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grants program has awarded more than 1,400 one-year grants to worshiping communities (churches, schools, and other organizations) and teacher-scholars in various disciplines across the United States and Canada. The grants fund thoughtful, creative projects that promote renewal in public worship and faith formation at the local, grass-roots level. The Vital Worship, Vital Preaching Grants program is generously supported by Indianapolis-based Lilly Endowment Inc.
