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The three-year grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. will support the continued enhancement of websites that equip preachers and worship planners with digital resources.
The three-year grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. will support the continued enhancement of websites that equip preachers and worship planners with digital resources.
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW) through Calvin University has received a three-year grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to support the ongoing development of a trio of websites that provide high-quality tools, resources, and search capabilities to equip the church for fruitful, effective preaching and worship leadership.
This award will extend and deepen the work funded by a previous grant, enabling CICW to improve three websites through enhanced capabilities, greater personalization, upgraded design, and expanded content—resources collected from a wide range of ecumenical, cultural, and historical contexts. New online capabilities will include specialized tools grounded in ethical uses of artificial intelligence for sermon preparation and worship planning. The websites funded by this grant are:
These enhanced websites will continue to serve preachers and worship planners in diverse settings. They are expected to have increasingvalue for bi-vocational pastors, lay preachers, and under-resourced church staff, who need ready access to trustworthy, useful resources.
CICW will manage this $3.5 million grant work in partnership with the Christian Classics Ethereal Library, also located at Calvin University. The grant period runs through 2029.
“We are deeply grateful for Lilly Endowment’s continued support of our efforts to equip the church effectively in the digital age,” said David Latimore, CICW’s executive director. “We look forward to finding faithful ways to meet the evolving needs of preachers, worship leaders, musicians, and other church leaders across the country as we respond to the changing technological and cultural landscape.”
The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship, located at Calvin University in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is an interdisciplinary study and ministry center that promotes the scholarly study of the theology, history, and practice of Christian worship and the renewal of worship in worshiping communities across North America and beyond. Since its founding in 1997, CICW has sponsored more than 150 ecumenical conferences and seminars, published nearly 150 books, and awarded more than 1,400 grants to enhance worship practices across North America.
The Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL), located at Calvin University, seeks to build up the church by making classic Christian literature widely available and promoting its use for edification and study by interested Christians, seekers, and scholars. The CCEL team oversees the daily operations of Hymnary.org and My.Hymnary.org.
Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J. K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J. K. Jr. through gifts of stock in their pharmaceutical business, Eli Lilly and Company. While those gifts remain the financial bedrock of the Endowment, it is a separate entity from the company, with a distinct governing board, staff, and location. In keeping with the founders’ wishes, the Endowment supports the causes of community development, education, and religion, and maintains a special commitment to its hometown, Indianapolis, and home state, Indiana. A principal aim of the Endowment’s religion grantmaking is to deepen and enrich the lives of Christians in the United States, primarily by seeking out and supporting efforts that enhance the vitality of congregations and strengthen the pastoral and lay leadership of Christian communities. The Endowment also seeks to improve public understanding of religion and lift up in fair, accurate, and balanced ways the roles that people of all faiths and various religious communities play in traditions in the United States and across the globe.
