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CICW announces next round of worship and preaching grants

July 10, 2026 · 1 min read

Dozens of Vital Worship, Vital Preaching grant awards will support worship renewal projects for teacher-scholars and worshiping communities.

The Calvin Institute of Christian Worship (CICW) has announced the newest recipients in its twice-yearly Vital Worship, Vital Preaching grant awards. Seventy-seven applicants across the United States and Canada will receive yearlong grants promoting thoughtful, creative projects to strengthen Christian worship practices and preaching.

These new grantees include sixty-six worshiping communities from various Christian traditions and eleven teacher-scholars working in a range of academic disciplines. Eleven of the grants focus on preaching as a key worship practice. Grants of up to $25,000 will fund projects beginning July 1, 2026.

“We’re grateful for another strong batch of grant proposals for projects promoting shalom-shaping worship practices in so many ecumenical and cultural contexts,” said Kathy Smith, CICW’s interim director and the director of personnel and grantmaking programs. “As these new grantees explore, study, and nurture vital worship practices, we look forward to learning with them and witnessing the growth and…

Source: Religion News Service · Read the full story →

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Mark Phillips

That's a lot of grants—77 this round is impressive. I noticed eleven of them are specifically for preaching; that could be useful for our choir director who's been trying to tie our hymn choices more closely to the Sunday readings. Looking forward to seeing what some of those worshiping communities come up with by next July.

Thomas Wagner

Nice to see that eleven grants are specifically focused on the sermon. Our choir director has been trying for a long time to connect the songs more closely with the respective Sunday readings - that could really help him. Let's see if something useful comes out of this for communities like ours.

Anna Weber

Yes, the eleven sermon grants sound particularly useful. Last year the priest also tried to link the readings more closely to the songs - but it hasn't really worked yet. Do you know whether your choir director has already tried out specific examples?

Stefan Hoffmann

Yes, linking readings and songs is really a good idea. In our choir we tried exactly that last year with the Passion season - the choir director matched two songs directly to the respective reading, and that worked noticeably better than before. In your church service, do you sing more traditional or sometimes newer songs?

Andreas Becker

Yes, the idea of coordinated songs for the reading sounds really useful - we have already done this in our church choir for the Advent season, and it has made the whole congregation more awake. We mostly sing traditional songs from the hymn book, but every now and then we also try something new from the youth choir book. Which two songs did you sing during the Passion season?

Monika Müller

Yes, having the right songs for the reading really makes a difference; it makes the sermon almost more tangible. During the Passion season we took “O head full of blood and wounds” and “Jesu, my joy” - both from the old hymn book, but we deliberately tailored the verses to the respective reading. Which newer songs from the youth choir book have you tried out recently?

Helena Schmidt

Yes, in our choir we also sang “O Head Full of Blood and Wounds” during the Passion season, which always fits. Did you tend to sing the old tunes from the hymn book during Advent or did you try something from the new youth choir book?