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 cultivate holy curiosity about what God is doing in the world and in the lives of fellow congregants by connecting our story with God’s story through retreats, guest presenters, and the crafting of new liturgies.
To encourage members to engage scripture by memorizing a weekly scripture passage with accompanying devotions, sermons, and other creative means.
To promote spiritual healing and renewal, cultural expression, and deeper connection between the congregation and the broader community through the development of a weekly gospel jazz worship service.
To empower lay leaders to create digital worship services that enable lay leaders in other rural churches to facilitate worship without a clergy member.
To cultivate practices of embodied worship that reflect the diversity of the congregation and the surrounding community to deepen capacity for communal embodied worship.
To explore a theology of the body to provide a foundation for leadership and laity to engage theologically and practically around issues of mental health, race, gender, and ability.
To support Christian peacemakers by developing regular opportunities for virtual corporate worship and by sharing together in the joys and griefs of peacemaking through the practices of prayer and praise, celebration and lament.
To develop contemporary and inclusive worship practices that create a richer public worship experience for congregants of all ages and generations.
To train pastoral and lay leaders in biblical theological knowledge and practical worship skills to help them respond more effectively to the new realities and needs of the congregation.
To create musical settings with local rhythms for the liturgical calendar to provide a more contextualized worship experience attuned to the Puerto Rican culture and folklore.
To promote unity within diversity in Christian worship by providing safe and hospitable spaces for multilingual songwriting processes among diverse groups, leading to the incorporation of multilingual songs into existing liturgies.
To decolonize worship life by auditing the liturgy, music, preaching, and sacred spaces of the church in order to fully live into the church’s commitment to antiracism and its mission of “Sharing Love, Doing Justice, and Building Community.”
