Transition from the Past
Facing the enrollment and fiscal challenges that hundreds of Christian institutions face in our current academic culture, precipitating months of prayer, discernment, and strategic efforts, the IWS Board of Trustees launched the IWS 2.0 Next Generation project in early 2025 to preserve the well-recognized worship renewal programs of our school. However, faced with ongoing formidable circumstances, the Board recently made the difficult decision to cease operations as an independent institution of Christian higher education, effective some time in 2026.
Miraculously, a bridge has emerged from the past to the future for IWS 2.0. Now our mission will not only continue but be strengthened, and the legacy of Robert Webber will extend into a new generation of worship leaders. Thanks be to God! Here’s how it happened.
Transition for the Future
As we were beginning our plans for IWS 2.0, Fuller Theological Seminary (Pasadena, CA) approached IWS to explore a relationship through formal partnership. From the beginning, the institutional leaders experienced an uncommon affinity for each other’s mission and for shared interests in the future of worship renewal around the globe.
Since March 2025, IWS and FTS have worked diligently and collaboratively to establish a sustainable and mutually benefitting path forward for graduate worship education for the sake of Jesus Christ and his Church. The alignment of mission and purpose between IWS and FTS led to approval by both Boards of Trustees in late October.
There is still much work to be done as the two institutions continue to develop the way in which the ongoing legacy of The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies will continue in the years to come. One thing we know: graduate worship education will only increase in fervor and depth as we work together offering ourselves with abandon to the new thing that God is doing.
Because of the present transitional state of IWS, new-student applications are of necessity suspended. We will be back in touch via our website once the process for application is finalized by both institutions.
Dr. Constance Cherry
President
The Robert E. Webber Institute for Worship Studies
On behalf of The IWS Board of Trustees