Edwin M. (Ed) Willmington is the Director of the Fred Bock Institute of Music of the Brehm Center for Worship, Theology and the Arts at Fuller Theological Seminary. As the institute director, Ed serves several roles. Among these responsibilities are teaching graduate level classes related to music and worship and serving as mentor to students who lead the Fuller Seminary Chapel ministry. He has also been named Composer-in-Residence for Fuller Theological Seminary.
Previously, his professional career has included serving as Worship and Arts Pastor at Scottsdale Bible Church in Scottsdale, AZ, for 22 years, Editor/Writer/Arranger for Good Life Publications, Worship Pastor at College Avenue Baptist Church in San Diego, CA, and Professor of Music at Point Loma University in San Diego.
In 1995, he created Shepherd’s Staff Worship Music for the purpose of making available resources for worship planning. Ed is the composer/arranger of more than 100 published works, served on the Advisory Board for The Hymnal for Worship and Celebration, and has been the recipient of many ASCAP awards for his contribution to church music.
While at Fuller, Ed’s compositional and CD projects include Jubilate! An Ancient-Future Concert Mass, and Reconciled in Christ, the music for the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization, held in Cape Town, South Africa, in October 2010. Ed also served as the conductor for those historic gatherings.
To celebrate the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation, he has developed a series of new releases for adults and children, called the Five Solas Project. He also has a special interest in encouraging the creativity of musical artists, and has created Jubal House Publications as a means of sharing new works as tools for worship planning. Through Jubal House, Ed is also involved in commissioning new musical works with spiritual and theological content that are artistically intended for use in the concert hall. Ed’s most recent projects are Consolation for the Suffering and The Weary World Rejoices!
Ed’s desire is to encourage creative corporate worship gatherings that connect people with God on a regular basis, and to create opportunities for worship ministry leaders and congregants to live out their giftedness as well. He is often asked to be a guest speaker at churches and conferences on topics related to worship and music. In order to model the principles of creative worship, Ed has hosted an annual one-day worship training conference, Forming Hearts, Creating Art, and the Festival of Worship, which was a creative worship gathering of choirs and instrumentalists held at the Los Angeles Cathedral.
As an author, he has contributed his thoughts to periodicals and other publications, including the Dictionary of Christian Spirituality (Zondervan).
Ed has a DMA in Music Composition (minor in Music Theory) and MM in Music Composition, both from the University of Arizona, as well as a BA in Conducting and Church Music (Bethel University in MN).
Ed and his wife, Mary Lou, have two married daughters, Nicolette Kay and Cami Ferreira, two sons-in-law, Timothy Kay and Gus Ferreira, and four wonderful grandchildren.