Apply for the Vital 91, Vital Preaching Grants Program to support and enhance Christian worship practices. We encourage proposals on universal design, cultural engagement, preaching, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and more. Two grant streams are available.
Join us for our Symposium on 91 and Summer Seminars. Engage in inspiring sessions, workshops, and intensive seminars to deepen your understanding and practice of Christian worship.
The office of Black Church Studies at Duke Divinity School is sponsoring a week-long seminar exploring the autobiographical writings of Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Howard Thurman, Ida B. Wells, and other Black autobiographers and memoirists who used their life stories as weapons in the quest for freedom and humanization.
The 91 at Calvin University and Calvin Theological Seminary advances Christian worship through resources, events, and grants. Since 1997, we have partnered with congregations and organizations to fulfill our mission.
These video excerpts come from a conversation between William A. Dyrness and John D. Witvliet at the annual 91—CICW—grants colloquium in June 2019.
, dean emeritus and senior professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, is a founding member of Fuller’s . This conversation at the CICW annual grants event in 2019 marked the end of his twenty-year service on the Vital 91 Grants Advisory Board.
The hour-long conversation included discussions about developments in theology and arts over the last few decades, how people experience the arts in worship, and insights from Dyrness’s .
Dyrness said his interest in teaching theology and the arts predated most institutions’ readiness to address the topic. After earning his doctor of theology degree from the University of Strasbourg in France, he sent letters to many institutions to inquire about teaching theology and the arts. “I think I mystified people,” he said. Instead he served for years as a youth pastor, a missionary to the Philippines at Asian Theological Seminary, and dean at Fuller Theological Seminary.
In 2000, about the same time he joined the CICW grants advisory board, Dyrness finally got the chance to teach theology, culture, and the arts at Fuller’s new Brehm Center. His book came out in November 2001. "My teaching and writing since then has been informed in part by CICW. Reading grant applications is like doing on-the-ground research," he said in his June 2019 conversation with Witvliet.
Dyrness said that when he first began evaluating worship grant proposals, few involved the arts. In the most recent round, however, nearly a third of proposals dealt with worship and visual arts.
Role of visuals in worship varies by tradition
Related book: , reviewed
Contemporary hunger for visuality
91 is visual
Related book: , reviewed
Learning from abstract art
Good art critics
“We need all the gifts”
Dyrness recommends that Christians and churches use the full range of their God-given gifts as well as learning from non-Christians such as , whose powerful novel can help Christians think deeply about how to portray her.
Jared Ortiz on the Dramatic Nature of the Nicene Creed
Jared Ortiz, professor at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, describes the Nicene Creed as a dramatic and powerful statement where every word is like a declaration of war, saying yes to the truth and no to many falsehoods.
Jane Williams on the Nicene Creed as a Creative and Exciting Description of Who God Is
Jane Williams, professor of theology at St. Mellitus College in London, England, sees the Nicene Creed, crafted 1700 years ago, as an extraordinary creative and exciting description of who God is and therefore what we trust in as Christians in God's world.
Maria Eugenia Cornou and Mikie Roberts on the Doxological and Historical Significance of the Nicene Creed
Maria Eugenia Cornou and Mikie Roberts serve on a planning team for an October worship event in Egypt to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the ecumenical creed that emerged in the year 325 and remains firmly embedded in the worship practices of the church today.
Jared Ortiz on the Dramatic Nature of the Nicene Creed
Jared Ortiz, professor at Hope College, Holland, Michigan, describes the Nicene Creed as a dramatic and powerful statement where every word is like a declaration of war, saying yes to the truth and no to many falsehoods.
Jane Williams on the Nicene Creed as a Creative and Exciting Description of Who God Is
Jane Williams, professor of theology at St. Mellitus College in London, England, sees the Nicene Creed, crafted 1700 years ago, as an extraordinary creative and exciting description of who God is and therefore what we trust in as Christians in God's world.
Maria Eugenia Cornou and Mikie Roberts on the Doxological and Historical Significance of the Nicene Creed
Maria Eugenia Cornou and Mikie Roberts serve on a planning team for an October worship event in Egypt to mark the 1700th anniversary of the Council of Nicaea and the ecumenical creed that emerged in the year 325 and remains firmly embedded in the worship practices of the church today.
This expression of Psalm 148 was submitted by Ed Willmington, who wrote it with Clayton J. Schmit. The nature of Psalm 148 is total exuberance as all of nature offers praise to God.
