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.

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Teacher-Scholar Formation

Outreach Canada Ministry

Barry Whatley

To explore the vital role of poetic imagination and creative expression of poetry in enhancing spiritual formation and worship in the local church.

Teacher-Scholar
Delta, british columbia
2024
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Teacher-Scholar Formation Visual Arts

Point University

Jennifer Allen Craft

To help Christians recognize and confess how sin distorts our relationship to place and hinders our ability to love our neighbors, and to help the church develop artistic practices of placemaking that advance the kingdom of God by promoting justice, beauty, and connection.

Teacher-Scholar
West Point, georgia
2024
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91ÁÔÆæing Communities Formation Testimony

River East Church

To facilitate a deep engagement with scripture through a culture of God-centered storytelling that develops the habit of naming God as the main actor in stories from both scripture and worshipers’ lived experience.

91ÁÔÆæing Communities
Winnipeg, manitoba
2024
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91ÁÔÆæing Communities Formation Liturgy

Roman Catholic Diocese of Dallas Office for 91ÁÔÆæ

To create a formation program on liturgy, theology, and musicianship that equips and encourages Spanish-speaking parish musicians and music ministers.

91ÁÔÆæing Communities
Dallas, texas
2024
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91ÁÔÆæing Communities Creation Care Formation

Salal + Cedar

To increase ecological-biblical literacy in outdoor worship participants and their communities and to encourage lectionary-focused eco-preaching through nature-based outdoor scripture study. 

91ÁÔÆæing Communities
Burnaby, british columbia
2024
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91ÁÔÆæing Communities Formation Missional

South Congregational Church of Kennebunkport 

To study and practice blessing one another and the wider community by emphasizing the theology of blessing in worship and by practicing embodied blessing of others in outdoor venues. 

91ÁÔÆæing Communities
Kennebunkport, maine
2024
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91ÁÔÆæing Communities Formation Multicultural

St. Vladimir's Orthodox Theological Seminary

To explore the role of music in Orthodox theological education in the midst of significant cultural and demographic changes and to develop a multicultural chant handbook that reflects the theological vision and demographic of the community and will facilitate spiritual formation.

91ÁÔÆæing Communities
Yonkers, new york
2024
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Teacher-Scholar Formation Justice

University of Alabama

Courtney O’Grady

To invite Catholic school practitioners (PK–12) to engage in self-study and group discussion as a means of reckoning with racism, ableism, and other injustices in American Catholic school practices, and then to reimagine Catholic schools as inclusive and justice-oriented worshiping communities.

Teacher-Scholar
Tuscaloosa, alabama
2024
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Teacher-Scholar Formation Music

University of Notre Dame Folk Choir (2024)

J. J. Wright

To create and workshop an original musico-dramatic composition and production of five scenes from resurrection accounts to enable undergraduate students in the Folk Choir to contemplate healing and forgiveness.

Teacher-Scholar
Notre Dame, indiana
2024
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91ÁÔÆæing Communities Formation Sacraments

Westminster Presbyterian Church (2024)

To build Christ-centered unity amid a fractured and polarized society by teaching about and promoting shared foundational Christian practices, including the sacraments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the engagement of scripture.

91ÁÔÆæing Communities
Waterloo, iowa
2024
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Teacher-Scholar Formation 91ÁÔÆæ Practices

Denver Seminary

Michelle A. Stinson

To explore the topic of time through biblical/theological, environmental, and agrarian reflections, probing how God’s care for creation as experienced in nature’s seasons and agriculture’s rhythms offers renewed hope as we emerge from an extended season of Covid-tide.   

Teacher-Scholar
Littleton, colorado
2023
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