Learning from Grantees

Women at the Pulpit: A Church in Puerto Nuevo Opens Space and Breaks Silence

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — In the heart of Puerto Nuevo, a Presbyterian congregation has taken a bold step toward inclusion and renewal by opening the pulpit to laywomen—recognizing their calls, their voices, and their leadership in the life of the church.

December 16, 2025 | 4 min read
Becki Graves and Chad Jay on a Creative Lent Celebration

A Bethel University grant project blessed Catholics and Protestants in the greater South Bend area of Northern Indiana. It used Richard Foster’s six streams of Christian tradition to create Via Crucis, an experience of the stations of the cross with visual art, music, poetry, and more.  

November 13, 2025 | 8 min read
Mark Franzen on Experiencing God through Sacred Music

A sacred music grant project helped Catholic parishioners from many ethnicities—Anglo, Eritrean, Filipino, Latino, Nigerian, Vietnamese, and more—experience the awe and mystery of faith and God. 

August 29, 2025 | 8 min read

Sunggu A. Yang on the Arts and Preaching

Intra-dynamic preaching is a new mode of preaching that promises to immerse people in God’s living word. It uses the form and language of specific art types to design sermons that resonate in people’s heads, hearts, imaginations, and bodies. Sunggu A. Yang edited a practical handbook to help preachers encounter God in scripture and aesthetically recreate that experience for listeners. 

July 31, 2025 | 7 min read
How Intra-Dynamic Preaching Helps Worshipers Encounter God

You’re probably familiar with expository and narrative sermons. Homiletics professor and author Sunggu A. Yang offers another preaching method: intra-dynamic preaching. He explains how “infusing the sacred art of preaching with the vibrant energy of the arts” can lead worshipers to unexpected moments in which God encounters and changes them.

July 29, 2025 | 10 min read
Sarah Travis on Worship, Playfulness, and Trauma

While completing a grant on playfulness in worship, Sarah Travis began to see connections between play and trauma. Worshiping God through embodied, imaginative, and story-based practices helps people and congregations stuck in trauma begin to move toward healing and new life.

April 23, 2025 | 8 min read

Robby Kiley on Creating Inclusive Community and Welcome

In this episode, Robby Kiley of Saint Pius X Parish in Granger, Indiana, shares how a grant project focused on welcome at the Mass for people across the spectrum of abilities extended beyond worship into a wider embrace of people in community and participation.  

December 13, 2024 | 20 min listen
Katie Callaway on Wonder, Curiosity, and Imagination in Worship

In this episode, Katie Callaway of Christian Temple Christian Church, in Catonsville, Maryland, shares how her congregation explored and deepened their understanding of worship by experimenting with godly play.  

December 13, 2024 | 21 min listen
“The Immigrant Church Project:” A Refuge of Hope and Worship in Los Angeles

The demographic reality of California—especially Los Angeles, where most Spanish-speaking churches receive many immigrants—inspired Pastor Francisco Zamora of Modus Church and his leaders, Eunice Soriano and Barnett Quiñones, to launch the "Immigrant Church Project.”

December 12, 2024 | 5 min read

Nathan Longfield on Embodiment, Creativity and Trauma-informed Worship

In this episode, Nathan Longfield, pastor of Emmaus Church, a newer worshiping community, talks about their year-long project that explored embodiment and trauma-informed practices to more deeply engage in worship as a congregation and community.  

December 10, 2024 | 20 min listen
Sun Valley City Church Explores the Various Dimensions of Worship

Sun Valley City Church in California recently delved into the topic of worship from a systematic, spiritual, and mental point of departure as part of a project titled “A Ministerial Guide for Churches and Pastors.” In addition to worship, topics such as preaching and leadership were also touched upon through a series of conferences. These lessons were initially created for the benefit of the congregation but were shared also with pastors and leaders from other churches.

October 17, 2024 | 5 min read
Enrichment Through Inclusive Creativity

“Bilingual Resources for Bilingual People” is an ambitious and collaborative project that sought to identify, engage, and challenge poets, songwriters, and emerging prophets. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, participants were called to contribute to the enrichment of worship services at La Fuente Ministries (Pasadena, CA). 

September 25, 2024 | 5 min read