Pan Africa Christian University (PAC) was founded by its prime sponsor, the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada (PAOC), and began its operations in 1978 as a Bible College.
As a mission-minded organisation, the PAOC began sending missionaries to numerous African countries in the 1920's. As a result of their efforts, a strong National church has emerged in Kenya and surrounding countries. Continentally, these churches are generally known as the Pentecostal Assemblies of God (PAG).
Through the efforts of indigenous pastors, missionaries, and evangelists, some PAG fellowships have grown to over 3,000 churches.
PAC University was born out of a vision to serve these and other evangelical fellowships and institutions by preparing men and women to minister to their particular needs.
From its inception, the Council of Governors of PAC University has sought to fulfil its vision of training church workers from a broad range of African countries for a variety of ministry roles within the church of Christ. The predominant vocational needs of the churches are for pastors, evangelists, theology teachers, Sunday school teachers, indigenous missionaries, Bible translators and counsellors.
Several Christian denominations and organisations have indicated their needs to PAC University by sending their prospective leaders for training.
Nairobi, Kenya, with its central location and accessibility, was a choice place for the institution to be situated. An exemplary venue became available in 1978 to the PAOC who secured the property for the establishment of a degree-granting institution.
The institution opened for classes on May 2, 1978, with 6 students and has grown to over 250 students. Leadership and faculty were largely provided by theological educators seconded from Canada by the PAOC. Throughout the history of PAC University, the PAOC has continued to second personnel, especially as administrators, while the full-time faculty has been increasingly composed of African nationals. In addition to its full-time lecturing faculty, the University has a number of part-time faculty who lecture in their fields of expertise. Full-time faculty usually have both pastoral experience and post-graduate degrees.
The vision of the Council of Governors was to provide theological education for church leaders at a post-secondary level, not only to offer degrees, but to fully equip Christian workers for their different tasks. After negotiations with the International Correspondence Institute (now Global/ICI University), PAC signed an Educational Agreement permitting the Institution to jointly offer the BA in Bible and Theology degree. PAC was therefore able to offer degrees through ICI University and its accrediting agency [the U.S. Accrediting Commission of the Distance Education and Training Council, in Washington, DC]
