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

On the campus of Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary
© 2024 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.
Donté Ford
To uplift the hymnody of twentieth-century Holiness reformer and prolific hymnwriter Bishop Charles Price Jones and to reinvigorate its use within and beyond the Black church by crafting arrangements and featuring them at choral clinics, thus enriching the historical, cultural, and theological breadth of local church choir music and congregational song.
Andrew Summerson
To bring together an ecumenical group of scholars to critically analyze early Christian liturgical poetry as prayer and pedagogy in order to give exposure to a significant and underdeveloped voice in contemporary Christianity.
Melanie Ross
To research the worship music industry, Christian higher education, and congregational ministry, in order to explore the intersection of liturgy and economics, to provide a history of how worship became part of the commercial music and entertainment industry, and to understand the ways that congregations and Christian colleges that train future worship leaders have responded to this shift.
Karen Johnson
To study Christians who have historically worshipped together across racial lines, using case studies to explore how thinking Christianly and historically about race’s effect on American worship might help churches foster reconciliation in the present.
Lynn Japinga
To explore the history of policies and practices regarding divorce in the Reformed Church in America, and to study how these policies have shaped worship practices such as Scripture reading, public prayer, and preaching, and affected divorced people.
Carol Penner
To research Anabaptist worship materials and curate a centralized online site to make historical and contemporary Mennonite resources available for all to use.
Martin Spence
To investigate the history of nationalism in American evangelical worship practices, working with congregational leaders to discern ways to disentangle Christian worship and nationalism.
Andrew Hofer, O.P.
To study seven early Christian preachers who model various aspects of "incarnational" preaching and produce a resource encouraging preachers to integrate public speech with all of life.
Susan E. Hylen
To study the history of women's participation in church life in the early church with pastors and church leaders, discerning how historical claims do (and should) function in contemporary discussions.
Kyle Dieleman
To study the relationship between Sabbath observance and spiritual formation, offering historical insights and exploring contemporary adaptations.
