About Us

About Cornerstone University

There is a scholarly crisis in the African church and society today. Most African pastors are untrained and the effects of their teaching and misuse of power are being felt in people’s homes. Moreover, according to research compiled by ActionAid, as of 2019, 70–80% of Ugandan graduates are held back by the skills gap.

It is the goal of Cornerstone University to train pastors and emerging leaders in new innovative and redemptive ways crafted and articulated in our “Give Light” strategy. This way, Cornerstone University demonstrates its merit for the public good and for the advancement of the Kingdom.

God's Grace So Far

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Your support will ensure we meet this unprecedented need to

Build Africa's capacity and prepare the African Church for the future

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Our Mission

A premier Christian university dedicated to the highest standards of academic excellence, innovative research, and Christian values, which equips students for lives of purpose, service, and leadership.

Cornerstone University is a Christ-centered, academic community of learners, transforming the hearts, minds, and hands of students for lives of purpose and service.

Our Vision

To be the most transformative global Christian university, where our carefully trained graduates lead purposeful and impactful lives as change agents around the world.

Cornerstone University will be a leading Christian university, known for its academic excellence and its commitment to faith that seeks understanding, where wisdom is pursued, and transformational leadership is practiced, Christian vocation is discerned, and service is fostered.

Our Programs

Cornerstone University will offer programs not only in theology and biblical studies, but in traditional fields like art, science, business, and education. This means businessmen and women, pastors, educators, and theologians will soon be making their way into the workforce having been trained and equipped by experts from a Christian background.

Starting Programs: 2023/24 Programs

3 Drivers of Cornerstone University

1. Unprecedented Demand

70% of Pastors in Sub-Saharan Africa have no theological training

Any time a blind man leads another, they both fall in a ditch (Matt. 5:14). The faith and trust of many innocent believers in Africa has been wrecked by greedy pastors who care nothing about the truth but peddle the gospel for profit. Cornerstone University promoters believe that knowledge imparted to pastors in the right environment will help drive many pastors back to truth and the church back to being the true church and rebuilding trust. Risen

A comprehensive education is necessary for an effective pastor and is critical to maintaining the Church.

We see a missing critical instruction in today’s theological and ministry education offered to pastors. Our vision, based on Exodus 13:3 and Acts 18:3, is to deliver a complete education for a complete pastor so that pastors are not only able to articulate theological positions and defend them but also able to lead and sustain healthy ministries as well as their households. Cornerstone’s new education model emphasizes the utility and value of education for the ministry workplace and family. Also, as church congregations in Africa become more educated, anxiety is growing among uneducated pastors who feel they are becoming increasingly inapt and incompetent to teach, lead, and answer thoughtful questions. It is Cornerstone University’s goal to prepare competent ministers who will accelerate the church’s mission to reach, raise, and release new believers for Kingdom service by developing efficient ministers capable of operating their various ministry offices from an informed, instructed, and educated place.

The inadequacy of non-formal training.

For 14 years now, Pastors Discipleship Network (PDN) has trained frontline African pastors utilizing non-formal training (conferences, seminars, workshops). We celebrate 15,000 pastors reached and 1.8 million congregants rooted in the Word and stirred towards Christ using this model. Nevertheless, we have struggled with fundamental limitations of our non-formal training model. Some of these limitations include inadequate time with the students, content reduction and condensation, lack of student accountability, and lack of accreditation for awarded certificates. African Pastors have desired formal training and have asked PDN to work hard towards accreditation so they can continue learning from a place they have come to trust. They have asked for affordable, accessible, and accredited theological training. PDN believes the time is now to respond to this request.

2. Building Africa’s Capacity

Building Africa’s capacity to train her own

With over 75,000 pastors in Uganda still needing training, and over 2 million pastors across Africa serving without foundational training, Africa’s capacity to train and release (commission) dedicated trainers is overdue. Cornerstone University will serve as an incubator to produce trainers for pastors. With God’s help, we are setting our sights on reaching 100,000 pastors trained and equipped by 2030. This will only be possible when graduates leave with a heart to train pastors. Cornerstone will educate and train men and women who graduate resolved to train other pastors.

Training articulate thinkers to engage culture on behalf of the church

Popular culture today looks poorly on the church and Christianity in general. It’s the church’s urgent work to train and develop grounded articulate thinkers to engage culture on behalf of the church and where possible influence policy. Such thinkers are bred in the devout halls of Christian universities.

Enabling young marketplace and emerging leaders (and future pastors) to explore faith in the context of their disciplines.

Across the nations of the world, there is a departure from the traditional Christianity. Schools and public service places are being forced not to practice or promote anything Christian. Cornerstone is envisioned as an outpost for the church to take her youngsters for education that promises a biblical world view.

3. Preparing for the future

New government laws are seemingly unfriendly to the church

In several African nations, new laws have been passed that require pastors to present certification in theology from accredited institutions before they can lead a church. More and more African nations are discussing this standard for pastors. Cornerstone University is a strategic avenue for preparing for this very real threat.

Global Impact

Cornerstone’s vision is to help address the world’s most pressing issues like poverty, corruption, disease, climate change, traditional values erosion, and others through quality research and contextualized thematic academic engagement. Cornerstone’s global impact will be pursued through education that is biblical, with a strategy of reproduction, and helps build the church locally.

The epicenter of Christianity has shifted to the global south

Africa, once the mission field, is now becoming the mission force. Africa and Asia are seeing millions come to faith in Jesus while the majority West is experiencing the opposite. The developing and sending of missionaries seems to now fall heavily on Africa and Asia. However, what results can be expected from Africa’s “sent missionaries” if they are not trained. Key skills in missiology, cross-cultural ministry, trades and crafts, and the true gospel must be learned. To develop missionaries who are grounded, articulate, trade-smart, and equipped for cross-cultural ministry; missionaries who will relentlessly pursue God and the lost, Africa must educate its own missionaries now.