1855 Knollcrest Circle SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49546-4402 USA

On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2025 91ÁÔÆæ
CICW has awarded Vital 91ÁÔÆæ, Vital Preaching Grants for over 20 years to teacher-scholars and worshiping communities in 45+ states and provinces and across 40+ denominations and traditions—including Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, non-denominational, and other Protestant communities.
While worship styles and practices vary greatly across these traditions, the grant projects typically explore at least one of CICW’s ten core convictions related to worship. Explore the hundreds of projects we’ve funded across both streams of the program.
To engage people from different ethnic communities in the practice of basic Christian worship principles in order to promote unity, faith formation, hospitality and missional opportunities expressed in culturally diverse forms.
To explore alternative means of worship using drums from around the world, to promote diversity, multiculturalism, inclusion, and outreach in worship.
To develop innovative and informal worship services involving global music to connect with spiritual but not religious persons in the community.
To develop a community through bilingual worship that reaches out from the historic black community to the growing Latino community, and to learn each other's songs and worship traditions.
To use the Psalms as a guide to deepen the understanding and practice of prayer, and to promote unity among diverse ecumenical, racial, and cultural worship expressions.
To facilitate cross-cultural reflection on Messianic biblical texts in music, preaching, teaching and liturgical application through curriculum, chapel services, weekend retreats for students and faculty and a worship symposium in a multicultural environment with a commitment to cross-cultural competence.
To offer a year-long guided exploration of the book of Psalms through workshops in dance, public reading of Scripture, theater, movement, painting, sculpture, photography and memorization that will bridge racial, generational and socio-economic obstacles in a diverse and multiethnic community.
To dwell in the Psalms as the yearly chapel theme that will include book studies, guest speakers and a Psalmfest with the expectation that a new understanding of the breadth and depth of the Psalms will result in greater and fuller worship participation using drama, music and visual arts in an ethnically and denominationally diverse K-12 school.
To engage students and faculty mentors in a year-long process to plan monthly chapel services, engage in theological and practical reflection on previous services and study broader issues related to worship through book discussion and guest-led workshops that will strengthen congregational singing, increase use of culturally/globally diverse liturgical resources and engagement with the whole person through multi-sensory worship practices.
To equip 30 leaders at the local parish level to become cultural mentors to parish liturgy committees in order to help local parishes learn how to worship together as multicultural communities in an area where worship is celebrated in over 40 different languages every Sunday.
To offer workshops and a focus on the Psalms that will create worship habits infused with multicultural voices expressed in music, storytelling, dance, drama and preaching in a growing and increasingly diverse congregation.
To engage the congregation in learning about the intersection of faith and community in partnership with their pastor who will be studying these communities and their worship as part of a Lilly Endowment Clergy Renewal Grant and together implement this new learning in worship when the pastor returns from her sabbatical.
