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 Education/Leadership 91ÁÔÆæ Practices

Duke University Divinity School

John Ruth

To survey the present state of college and seminary instruction on the theology, history, and practice of contemporary praise and worship, and to engage scholars in conversation around recent and emerging scholarship on contemporary worship in order to create a podcast series and a curriculum guide for worship educators and church practitioners.

Teacher-Scholar
Durham, north carolina
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Visual Arts Formation

Fuller Seminary/Brehm Center

Maria Eugenia Fee

To establish and facilitate a series of arts-based leadership development workshops for pastors and church leaders in order to introduce them to the formational value of the arts in worship and invigorate arts-based worship practices in their faith communities.

Teacher-Scholar
Pasadena, california
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Ecumenical Sacraments

Goshen College

John D. Roth

To foster ecumenical conversations about baptism by hosting seminars for pastors and lay leaders using a newly created accessible study guide on the recent groundbreaking report of the international Lutheran-Mennonite-Roman Catholic Trilateral Dialogue on Baptism. 

Teacher-Scholar
Goshen, indiana
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Architecture/Space

Hope College

Lindsey Hanson

To investigate emerging theological issues in worship with scholars and practitioners by reflecting on a cross-disciplinary collaboration of dance, architectural design, and film within a worship space, and empowering local ministry leaders and churches to discern theologically and imagine liturgically the characteristics of Christian worship in their own context by engaging curated online media.  

Teacher-Scholar
Holland, michigan
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Intercultural Liturgy

Knox College

Sarah Travis

To create and field-test a preaching and liturgical resource addressing reconciliation among Settler Canadians and Indigenous peoples for the Presbyterian Church in Canada, based on two Calls to Action from the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Teacher-Scholar
Toronto, ontario
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Ecumenical Sacraments

Lee University

Christopher A. Stephenson

To develop a pneumatological perspective on baptism and the Lord's Supper that nurtures vibrant experiences of the Holy Spirit within traditional liturgical forms and practices, and to encourage substantial Pentecostal contributions to ecumenical dialogue on the sacraments.

Teacher-Scholar
Cleveland, tennessee
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Ecumenical Sacraments

Northwestern College

John Vonder Bruegge

To produce new, collaborative translations of Jesus’ parables that both remain true to the Greek text and strive for a listenability in their oral presentation, and to gather those translations into a publication that equips worshiping communities to deliver the texts orally in worship.

Teacher-Scholar
Orange City, iowa
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Accessibility

OCAD University

David Pereyra

To gather diverse worshiping communities in online workshops and webinars in order to create a culture of inclusion by assessing inclusive thinking, helping communities develop strategies to increase their inclusivity, and gathering data to develop on online reference guide on accessibility that will empower faith leaders to use varied strategies of inclusion. 

Teacher-Scholar
Toronto, ontario
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Visual Arts

Saint Meinrad Seminary and School of Theology

Sr. Jeana Visel

To support deeper study and experience of Byzantine iconography and theology by creating a moveable iconostasis that will aid the community's growth in knowledge and appreciation of the theology and spiritual practices of iconography and broaden its experience of Eastern expressions of worship.

Teacher-Scholar
St. Meinrad, indiana
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Preaching

University of Dallas

Carla Pezzia and Theodore James Whapham

To survey clergy and congregants regarding the state of homiletics in the Catholic church in order to support Catholic preachers in improving their homilies and leverage liturgical preaching to reconnect with disengaged congregants.   

Teacher-Scholar
Irving, texas
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Leisure

University of Ottawa

Paul Heintzman

To investigate how Christian worship and leisure influence each other in order to better understand the relationship between them, so that Christian worship may be enhanced, and the leisure of Christians can also be enriched.

Teacher-Scholar
Ottawa, ontario
2021
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Teacher-Scholar Cultural Engagement Public Witness

University of Wisconsin Milwaukee

Demetrius K. Williams

To explore the cross of Christ in African American Christian experience as motivation for piety, political engagement, and social protest by researching spirituals, narratives, sermons, and other resources that highlight the importance of the cross of Christ for notions of freedom and the unity of humanity in the church's public witness.

Teacher-Scholar
Milwaukee, wisconsin
2021
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