Our History

 

In 1944, Dr. Bebe Patten and her husband, C. Thomas Patten, conducted evangelistic services in the Bay Area. Thousands of people filled the Oakland Auditorium Arena (now the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center) seeking purpose and meaning for their lives. Several hundred answered a call to active Christian service. Because of this response, Dr. Patten founded the Oakland Bible Institute, which was incorporated as a California nonprofit corporation.

The School was located for several years at its initial location, 1428 Alice Street. It moved to Telegraph Avenue in 1950, and then to the present campus on Coolidge Avenue in 1960. Later the school was renamed Patten University in response to its growth and expansion of academic programs and degree offerings.

While the University has continued to emphasize Bible and church-centered ministries, it has created options for students whose career interests lie in fields other than the professional ministry.

The University is supported by the Christian Evangelical Churches of America, Inc. (CECA), also founded in 1944 by Dr. Patten. This organization is a separate nonprofit corporation that establishes churches and ordains men and women to the ministry. Christian Cathedral, the CECA headquarters church located on the Patten University campus, provides some of the facilities used in the University program.

In 1997, Patten University became an affiliate university of the Church of God, Cleveland, Tennessee. Recognized as a "Church of God Institution", the University provides programs to further the ministry and the work of the Church of God in the western United States.