CICW Announces Next Round of Worship and Preaching Grants
Dozens of Vital Worship, Vital Preaching grant awards will support worship renewal projects for teacher-scholars and worshiping communities.
June 30, 2026
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2 min read
How to Preach and Hear the Psalms
A workshop which shows participants how to preach genre-conscious sermons from the book of Psalms. Attention will be given to historical, literary, and theological issues with the aim of improving hermeneutical, generical, and homiletical practice. Participants, including hearers of sermons, will expand their knowledge of the psalms as a genre, develop genre-conscious forms and structures, and cultivate new strategies for homiletical practice.
June 23, 2026
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82 min video
Peter Levenstrong on Living Stories Sermons
Imagine if people came to worship asking not “What will the preacher say?” but “What will we discover together?” Living Stories Sermons is a collaborative preaching model that brings new life to worship and helps people feel as if they belong. It involves exegesis, wondering questions, and small-group reflection, and it trusts that the Holy Spirit can speak through everyone, not just the preacher.
June 16, 2026
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9 min read
Practicing Resilience with the Psalms
The psalms are a rich resource for our human experience of emotions, community, and connection to God. We will practice activities based on the truth of the psalms and on psychology to strengthen our capacity for navigating suffering with grace and resilience.
May 21, 2026
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74 min video
Being Shaped by the Psalms: Lessons in Trust, Hope, and Love
The psalms reflect our deepest emotions as people of faith. In their expressions of thanksgiving, trust, lament, anger, joy, doubt, and praise, these ancient prayers seem to peer right into our souls and put words to our thoughts and experiences. But the psalms are more than human words to God. Embedded as they are in the scriptures, they are now also God’s word to us.
May 12, 2026
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80 min video
Recovering the “Lost Art of Lament” in Worship
Worship that is faithful to the whole Bible must include lament. A worship renewal grant on making lament a normal part of worship brought together eight churches in metro Birmingham, Alabama. It yielded ideas and practices that can be adapted to any church tradition and context.
Experiencing God’s Presence Within Our Work
Mission Chattanooga, an Anglican church in Tennessee, did a grant project that helped workers narrate their experiences in prayers and liturgy. Gathering with people from their vocational fields helped them tune their hearts to experience God in the workplace. You can use and adapt their curriculum to your context.
April 23, 2026
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7 min read
W. David O. Taylor on the Psalms and Praying the Unedited Life
Author and pastor-scholar David Taylor shares how he came to appreciate the psalms and how he encourages people to bring their full, unedited selves to God in prayer and experience a richer and more honest life of faith.
April 10, 2026
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26 min listen
Kathryn Roelofs on Leading Worship for Workers
God cares about workers. But even though work takes up so much of our lives, most church services rarely talk about it. Leading Worship for Workers gives practical ideas to help churches connect Sunday worship to the everyday work lives of their people.
April 9, 2026
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7 min read
Isaac Wardell on Bringing Work into Worship
Daily work, paid and unpaid, consumes our lives, energy, and minds—even when we are in church. Here are ways to plan worship so people see themselves and their work as instruments of God.
March 19, 2026
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5 min read
Janette H. Ok on Giving and Receiving Sermon Feedback
Whether you’re an average worshiper or a seasoned pastor, you’ve probably wondered, “Why is the preacher saying this or doing that?” But would you ever dare ask the preacher? Creating a culture of giving and receiving sermon feedback benefits both preachers and congregations.
March 12, 2026
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8 min read
Janette H. Ok on Shared Pulpits
Hearing more than one voice in the pulpit opens congregations to hearing God in new ways. Welcoming homiletical diversity takes a burden off the main pastor and trains churches to create a culture of hospitality.
March 5, 2026
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6 min read
