CICW has awarded Vital 91, 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.
Mission United Presbyterian Church
To equip a new generation of worship leaders with musical skills and vocal techniques to foster the creation of worship experiences that connect with and reach out to people from the surrounding community.
Modus Church
To develop more contextualized public worship services through equipping musicians and lay preachers with resources and skills shaped by the experience of the immigrant church.
North Hills Hispanic Mission UMC
To create a worship team and provide the group with initial formative training on musical skills and biblical-theological foundations.
Nueva Esperanza Covenant Church
To create a youth choir and train choir members and worship leaders on vocal techniques.
Pueblo de Dios Lutheran Church
To create and implement a model of bilingual worship that will foster church unity among worshipers from different generations.
Restauración Los Ángeles
To develop a new generation of church musicians and worship leaders who, in addition to typical roles, could acquire skills required to compose new congregational songs and to produce new worship music.
St. James Episcopal Cathedral
To equip lay leaders with practical skills in the areas of music, public speech, visual arts and crafts, and technology to enhance the congregation’s liturgy and preaching and enrich the communal celebrations.
St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church
To strengthen intergenerational worship through the creation of a children’s choir, liturgical discipleship courses for children, and communal prayer projects that integrate people from different generations.
Sun Valley City Church
To deepen the congregation’s knowledge of preaching and worship through the development and implementation of a curriculum centered in the scriptures and the community, with the added goal of sharing the curriculum with other congregations in this church’s network.
Van Nuys UMC
To deepen the congregation’s understanding of the theology of worship and its faithful practice through a series of seminars, classes, and activities based on the CICW’s Ten Core Convictions.
Casa Vida United Methodist
To deepen the practice, enrich, and connect the worship-discipleship program and the community outreach program in the context of the semi-rural Hispanic immigrant population.
Comunidad Cristiana Nuevo Pacto
To provide educational resources and practical exercises to facilitate the contextualization of a liturgy marked by biblical and theological content and focused on developing healthy spirituality and human relationships.