History

Canada’s First Competency-Based Christian leadership College

Horizon College & Seminary was established in 1935 and continues as a pioneer of Christian Higher Education. Located in the beautiful prairie city of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, we are creating a multi-denominational prairie hub to offer distinct programming for students preparing for leadership in a variety denominations.

Today we are Canada’s first competency-based Christian leadership college.

Horizon began its journey towards competency-based education in 2015, but our story goes back much further than that.

A Brief History of Our College

In 1935, Pastor George Hawtin founded a small Bible school in Star City, Saskatchewan. In 1937, Hawtin moved the Bethel Bible Institute to the city of Saskatoon, where he could provide students with a new campus and easier access to the growing college. Over the next decade, Bethel established a relationship with the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC) that would sustain it through a difficult administrative change in 1947, and with the support of the Saskatchewan District, the college remained in the campus at Avenue A and 29th Street until 1963.

As Bethel rebuilt after 1947, it expanded its relationships within the PAOC. In 1962 the school changed its name to Central Pentecostal College and came officially under the joint sponsorship of the Manitoba-Northwestern Ontario and Saskatchewan Districts.

Central Pentecostal College in the early days

In 1968, the college purchased the former Lutheran Theological Seminary building, just off 8th Street East in Saskatoon, and in 1969, built a new residence, capable of housing seventy-two students, to suit the needs of a burgeoning student body. In 1972, Central Pentecostal College strengthened its relationship with the Lutheran Theological Seminary by establishing an agreement whereby qualified students could study at Central Pentecostal College towards attaining a graduate level theological degree.

The college continued to thrive well into the 1980s, adding a 150-seat lecture theatre, an expanded library, and a new office complex to the existing education building. On July 1, 1983, Central Pentecostal College was granted Affiliate College status by the University of Saskatchewan, allowing students access to the University Libraries and creating a number of courses that transfer credit to the University.

In 1997, Central Pentecostal College was granted accredited membership in the American Association of Bible Colleges (now called the Association for Biblical Higher Education, or ABHE).

In 2007, the ABHE approved a new agreement between our college and Providence Theological Seminary in Manitoba to create a Pentecostal Studies track in Providence’s Master of Divinity program. In June 2020, ABHE extended accreditation to Horizon Seminary’s M.A. in Ministry Leadership.

Ministry Partnerships

In 2007, we changed our name to Horizon College & Seminary, a decision that reflected Horizon’s widening network of ministry partnerships. In 2009, Horizon College & Seminary merged libraries with the libraries of the Saskatoon Theological Union, creating one of the largest theological collections in Canada (120,000 volumes). In 2015, the ABHE accrediting agency reaffirmed Horizon for accreditation until 2025.

In September 2015, Horizon commemorated its 80th year of ministry by becoming Canada’s first competency-based Christian leadership college (CBE). Our shift to the CBE model of education reflects our belief that we take our greatest strides forward and offer the best programming and resources to our students when we retain strong relationships with those we work beside in the body of Christ.

In June 2018, we signed an agreement with the Mennonite Brethren Biblical Seminary, the first of a succession of partnerships arrangements that allow us to offer multi-denominational programming to meet the needs of Christian graduates in our changing culture. In November 2018, the Church of God in Western Canada voted at their annual business meeting in Calgary to partner with Horizon, with an MOU signed shortly thereafter. In March 2019, the Saskatchewan Conference of Mennonite Brethren Churches voted at their 2019 Assembly in Regina to affirm partnerships with Horizon, and in June 2019 Horizon signed an MOU with Ambrose University and was invited to participate at the District Conference of the Canadian Midwest District of the Christian & Missionary Alliance in Regina later that month. This was followed by partnership in November 2018.

As we begin this stage of our journey, we are focused on building strong connections with our constituency and expanding our multi-denominational partnerships in Christian higher education so together we can advance God’s Kingdom by preparing competent Christian leaders for Spirit-empowered life and ministry.

Continued Growth

In 2021 Horizon has moved to a brand-new facility, investing our equity as the first major installment of an endowment fund to grow as a source of sustainable revenue in order to help our college thrive into the indefinite future.