About Anchor Christian University

Anchor Christian University is a private nonprofit institution with a unique local/global
integrated frontline learning model, training Christian leaders for immediate impact in their calling.
Learn where you serve! The University provides a focused curriculum designed to prepare
students for their God-designed path and awards associate, bachelor’s, and master’s degrees.

Our Why

Anchor Christian University aims to amplify the disciple-making mandate of the local church globally through faith-driven biblical training and education.

Our Vision

To take biblical higher education to the front lines of ministry and leadership using an integrated distance education model to produce graduates who are biblically grounded, faith-driven, relevantly experienced, and highly competent Kingdom citizens.

A Group of Students in the Library

Amplify

We are here to partner with local churches and other frontline ministries — not replace them –to help them accomplish their mission by developing and launching next gen Christian leaders.

Globally

The local church is the means through which God will accomplish his mission in the world. It is the front line for equipping the saints for the work of the ministry (Eph. 4:12), a core element of making disciples of all nations (Matt. 28:19-20).

Faith-Driven

Our hope is ANCHORED in Jesus, our forerunner (Heb. 6:19-20). We have confidence in His sufficiency (Heb. 11:1). We seek to please God, believing both that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him (Heb. 11:6). We live and learn from this place of faith.

Biblical

We believe the Bible is the inspired and inerrant Word of God. Therefore, it is absolutely true and the final authority for what we believe and how we live our lives. (2 Tim. 3:16-17)

“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us…” 

Hebrews 6:19-20a

Our History

Anchor Christian University was approved by the Florida Department of education as a licensed degree-granting institution, and launched in 2016. Its foundation is set in several decades of local church and para-church discipleship ministry and leadership development, reaching back almost 50 years.

In 2006, God planted a vision in the heart and mind of university founder, Ben Wilhite, for a university with global reach that would partner with the Church to equip and launch Christian leaders in their own unique location, culture, economy, and language. Beyond that, the vision was to use each of those dynamics, with the best of modern higher education tools and design, as catalysts, not challenges.

From 2006 to 2016, the core team worked with a higher education consulting and delivery organization — now called Eleven:6 — to develop and hone the model, the toolbox, and the foundation of a global frontline ministry network, while also delivering integrated undergraduate and graduate professional ministry courses for a regionally accredited Christian university.

Since its launch, the university has developed strategic transfer agreements with several regionally-accredited Christian university partners, continued to grow a network of frontline ministry partners, developed new undergraduate and graduate programs and began delivering all-Spanish language courses and programs throughout Latin America via our partnership with Servant Leaders.

Statement of Faith

Anchor Christian University is committed to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, the oneness of Christians, and the evangelization of the world. Since the unity of the church is created and maintained through a common faith in Jesus Christ, ACU looks to the inspired biblical record for the foundation of its faith.

THE SCRIPTURES. We believe the Bible (Old Testament and New Testament in the original writings) is the inspired and inerrant Word of God. Therefore, it is absolutely true and the final authority for what we believe and how we live our lives. John 17:17Galatians 3:162 Timothy 3:16-172 Peter 1:19-21.

THE GODHEAD. We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, each having the same nature, attributes, and perfections, as revealed in the Bible. Matthew 28:19–20John 1:1-2Acts 5:3-4Colossians 2:9.

JESUS CHRIST – HIS PERSON AND HIS WORK. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is fully God and fully man. He was eternally begotten of the Father, conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary. We believe that Jesus Christ died for the sins of the whole world as the substitutionary sacrifice, that His crucified body was raised from the dead, and that He ascended into heaven to appear before the Father as our High Priest, Advocate, and Mediator. Luke 1:35Romans 9:51 Corinthians 15:1–3Philippians 2:6-11Colossians 1:15–172:9Hebrews 4:159:241 Timothy 2:51 Peter 1:32:243:181 John 2:2.

THE HOLY SPIRIT. We believe that the Holy Spirit came in a special sense on the Day of Pentecost, indwelling every believer. In this age, the Holy Spirit carries out the ministries of restraining evil in the world; convicting people of sin, righteousness, and judgment; regenerating and indwelling all believers; baptizing them into the Body of Christ; sealing them unto the day of redemption; and empowering them for sanctification and service. John 14:16–1716:7–15Romans 8:91 Corinthians 6:1912:1328–30Ephesians 2:20-224:1-1630Hebrews 2:1-4Titus 3:5.

HUMANITY. We believe God created humanity, male and female, reflecting the image and likeness of God. Each person’s biological sex has been sovereignly appointed by God and is an irreversible aspect of his or her nature. God has established and revealed in Scripture a divine order to regulate humanity. Human institutions reflecting that order are the marriage of a man and a woman, family, and human government. Marriage is a union ordained by God between one man and one woman and is thus the only biblically sanctioned context for sexual expression. We believe that Adam, the first human, sinned and thereby incurred the judgment of both physical death and spiritual death which is eternal separation from God. Therefore, all human beings, with the exception of Christ Jesus, are born with a fallen nature, are accountable for their sin, and need to be born again. Genesis 1:1,26,27Psalm 51:5Jeremiah 17:9John 3:3-7Romans 1:21-323:10-125:121 Thessalonians 4:3Ephesians 2:1-101 John 1:8-10Genesis 2:18-25Colossians 3:18-21Romans 13:1-7.

SALVATION. We believe that sinners are justified by faith alone, forgiven, reconciled to God, kept by Him, and granted eternal life as a gift of His grace, which they receive by faith alone in the crucified and risen Savior, Jesus Christ. Whoever believes solely in the finished work of Jesus Christ receives the new birth, becomes a partaker of the divine nature, and thus becomes a child of God, once for all, forever. John 3:166:3710:27–302 Corinthians 5:14Ephesians 2:8–91 Timothy 2:3-61 Peter 1:18-19232 Peter 1:3-4.

THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. We believe that God not only counts believers as righteous but that he makes them righteous; freeing them of sin’s dominion at conversion, purifying their hearts by faith, perfecting them in love by his Spirit, and providing for their growth in grace through their participation at every stage of their spiritual life, enabling them through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit to live a victorious life of righteousness and purpose.

THE CHURCH. We believe the Church universal began at Pentecost with the baptism of the Holy Spirit and consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the Head of the Church, called His Body. The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together under scriptural leadership for the worship of God, for edification through the Word of God, for prayer, for fellowship, for the proclamation of the Gospel, and for the observance of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Matthew 16:16–18Acts 1:4-52:42–4711:15-16Romans 12:5Ephesians 1:20–23Philippians 1:11 Corinthians 12:131 Timothy 3:15.

THE FUTURE. We believe that Jesus Christ will return to the earth personally and physically to receive His people into His presence, to bring judgment on an unbelieving world, and to establish His sovereign rule of righteousness and peace over the earth. We believe His coming could occur at any time. We believe that both believers and unbelievers will be raised from the dead bodily, believers to conscious eternal blessedness in God’s presence and unbelievers to conscious eternal punishment and separation from Him. Luke 16:19–26John 11:251 Corinthians 15:51-571 Thessalonians 4:13–18Revelation 20:1–1521:1–8.

State Authorization

Anchor Christian University grants degrees under the authority of the Florida State Board of Independent Colleges and Universities in compliance with Section 1005.06(1)(f), Florida Statutes.

While ACU strives to build articulation agreements and strategic partnerships with other post-secondary degree-granting institutions, there is no guarantee academic credit will transfer to degree programs elsewhere, outside of existing agreements.

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