The Institute for Worship Studies Bites the Dust

The Institute for Worship Studies Bites the Dust
Saturday, November 1, 2025 by Dr. James W. Walraven

Categories: Apologetics / Contemporary issues / Scripture discussion / The church / Thought for Today

The Robert Webber Institute for Worship Studies is no more. Today, they’ve notified graduates, of which I am one, of their official demise. I’d like to say it is a surprise, but it is not.

IWS is the second Christian institution of higher education that I attended to officially close this year. Multnomah Biblical Seminar (and Bible College), that had previously been taken over by Jessup University, also officially ceased operations.

Their deaths had a number of things in common. Both, in part, declared that Covid was a key component in the decline and demise. For argument’s sake, let us take that at face value.

But what they truly have in common is what has not been said. At the end, neither insititution had honest, transparent, leadership. What was being said was more popular optimistic type jargon that bore no relation to the actual situation they faced. In the case of Multnomah, leadership often outright directly lied. With IWS, it stayed more at the level of incomplete, somewhat misleading information, rather than outright subterfuge.

As for the future, IWS leadership announced a plan that sounds eerily similar to what was announced by Multnomah when they were acquired by Jessup. The IWS program will be taken over by Fuller Theological Seminary. On the one hand, the fit is better than those with a strong liturgical bent may think.

Fuller has long since left its evangelical roots and embraced the emerging/emergent church movement. Key emergent church figures have been on their faculty for some time. That is also the problem. Many, though not all, hod that the Bible, while true about the nature of salvation, is in error about many other things.

Liturgical practices, when rooted in the Scriptures, make an excellent connecting point with God. Apart from the Scriptures, they become just another form of religion. Indeed, once that mooring is lost, liturgical practices often usurp the place of Scripture. Historically, the Roman Catholic Church sereves as a sad example. In any case, as happened with Multnomah, I strongly suspect will happen with the IWS legacy. After a couple of years, I suspect Fuller will make significant changes. Time will tell.

One of the things I do wonder: how did the firing of Jim Hart impact IWS? That is an issue that subsequent leadership never forthrightly addressed. One could argue, I suppose, that in that type of corporate world, they could not go public with what happened. Still, I do wonder.

Had IWS lost its biblical moorings? That I cannot say. When I attended, it seemed to me that their emphasis on historical liturgical practices were firmly rooted in Scripture. The only thing I can say about the last few years is that what I had often seen posted by key figures or influencers had very little connection with it.

One of the things God does promise—not a promise the advocates of the “prosperity gospel” would ever claim—is that when everything is shaken, only what is unshakable will remain. Biblically speaking, we should not be surprised that individual churches, denominations, or Christian institutions lose God’s blessing when they depart from the basics of the faith. While they may retain a surface form of godliness, God’s power, through the Holy Spirit, is gone.

I remain deeply saddened by the demise of IWS, and for that matter, of Multnomah as well.

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