Who We are

Zimbabwe Christian College is an undergraduate college supported by the Christian churches and churches of Christ in the United States and in Zimbabwe. The college has existed from its beginnings to serve the churches of Zimbabwe and southern Africa. By training pastors and teachers, the college encourages church planting and church growth throughout the region. ZCC stands firmly in the Stone-Campbell Movement which seeks to find biblical principles to set the direction and practice of the church.


Zimbabwe Christian College also serves as a unifying force for the churches in Zimbabwe. Since many of the pastors of the churches of Christ and Christian churches have a close connection to the college, they often look to the faculty and staff as resources in their ministries and frequently return to the college for annual gatherings of pastors and leaders.

Our Mission

Zimbabwe Christian College exists to educate Christian leaders for the ministry in Zimbabwe and throughout Southern Africa. With a three year on-campus, one year satellite, and correspondence courses, ZCC offers a variety of delivery methods for Christian education designed to develop deeper biblical understanding and stronger leadership skills to prepare students for a variety of roles both within and outside the church setting. The church needs strong leaders, and the leaders produced by ZCC stand ready to plant new churches and lead existing ones. Education is one of the keys to a healthy, growing church, and it is the goal of ZCC to provide the education that future church leaders need to be effective.


Currently, graduates are serving in many of the 800 Christian churches and churches of Christ in Zimbabwe. Graduates are also serving in ministries in the following countries: Mozambique, Malawi, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Sudan, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. In addition to these students who have returned to their own countries, four are serving as missionaries in Tanzania, Namibia, and South Africa.

Our history

Several missionaries from the Christian churches and churches of Christ trained Christian for ministry in various locations in what was then Rhodesia for many years, but in 1975, these efforts came together to form Rhodesian Christian College. The college was located in the capital of Salisbury and was under the leadership of the college's first principal, Jack Pennington, an American missionary. At the new college, both Africans and Europeans participated in night classes, church services, camps, retreats, mission meetings, and Bible correspondence courses.


After the civil war, which brought independence in 1980, the nation became Zimbabwe, and the college was renamed Zimbabwe Christian College in the newly renamed capital of Harare. The next year, resident classes began on campus. In the 30 years that followed, the college was led by Jack Pennington, David Altman, Kenneth Makusha (the college's first Zimbabwean principal), and Sidyne Mavodza, the current principal.


The college's first primary building was originally a hotel. The classroom building was soon added, and in the past ten years an administration building and library have also been constructed.


The 300+ graduates of the college serve in a variety of ministries: ministers of several rural churches or one larger city church; chaplains in the military, prisons, boarding schools, and hospitals; teachers of Bible correspondence courses; missionaries to surrounding countries; administrators and teachers of children's homes; college professors; church planters and leadership trainers.