[2] Sanderson moved to Washington state in 1886 and pastored Christian Churches in Palouse, Colfax, Ellensburg, Sumner, Vancouver, and Olympia.

In early 1895, he took part in a meeting in Eugene, Oregon to discuss establishing a school to train ministers.

He strongly believed that locating ministerial schools near state institutions of higher education provided the best of both worlds.

Thus, he deliberately located EDS next to the University of Oregon (UO) near East 11th Avenue and Alder Street to take advantage of the UO liberal arts program while EDS focused primarily on the ministerial courses including Bible, theology, music, and oratory.

During the Great Depression, both EBU and IBM found themselves overextended and financially in default.

He founded Pacific Christian Hospital, which is now PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center University District, across Alder Street from EBU.

In 1936 it was sold to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Newark for $50,000 and renamed Sacred Heart General Hospital.

This latter institution did not do well and his health was failing, so Sanderson asked one of his former students, William Jessup, a 1930 graduate of EBU, to take over.

He started a Home and School for Boys in Eugene in 1926 and another in 1927 in El Monte, California.

In order to publicize the evangelical and educational work of EBU and IBM he published the Church and School paper, starting in 1909.