[1] Meanwhile, a church in Seattle called the Hollywood Temple had invited a young man from Fargo, North Dakota, to be the pastor of the ministry.

He approached the Northwest District of the Assemblies of God about starting the institute and offered the Hollywood Temple as the campus.

Other staff and faculty included Ruth Morris, an English teacher, Delbert Cox, who taught music, and Christiansen, who volunteered as the dean of students.

He also made changes in the structure of the academics and administration so that the new college ran more like an educational institution focused on preparing people for a wide variety of ministries and vocations.

Through many travels and visitations, he came to an old military shipbuilding facility and housing project on the east side of Lake Washington.

As he prayed, he felt that God was promising this location as the future campus of Northwest Bible College.

However, in 1958, the Department of Health, Education and Welfare awarded Northwest Bible College twenty-two and one-thirds acres at no cost.

Classes began on September 28, 1959, and within a few years the campus had expanded to women and men's dormitories, a cafeteria, a student center, and a gymnasium.

To commemorate this event, the Lay Council presented the school with a 5,000 lb (2,300 kg) Ebenezer Stone of Remembrance as a visible sign of thanks to God for the last 50 years.

Northwest College also extended a 20-year lease to the Seattle Seahawks team in 1984 on a 12-acre (49,000 m2) plot of undeveloped land on the west side of campus.

The board of directors unanimously elected pastor and Superintendent of Assemblies of God Oregon District Dennis A. Davis to be the fourth president of Northwest College.

The LEAP program at Northwest enables working adults to attend night classes to receive a degree.

His father had taken the pastoral role at Hollywood Temple in the late 1940s when Northwest's first president Ness had resigned.

Mark and Huldah made a sizeable donation to the school from the organization they founded called Mission of Mercy in Kolkata, India.

Argue took the opportunity and by the fall of 2001, Northwest offered the Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology program.

Castleberry had previously served as the academic dean at the Assemblies of God Theological Seminary in Springfield, Missouri.

On August 14, 2007, the General Contractor released the Certificate of Occupancy for the Health and Sciences Center (HSC).

The HSC serves as the home for the Mark and Huldah Buntain School of nursing as well as the University Science Department's chemistry, biology, environmental studies, and physics labs.

On May 8, 2009, Northwest University formally recognized the former president and current Chancellor for his efforts by naming the building The Donald H. Argue Health and Sciences Center.

"'The new Health and Sciences Center has surpassed our expectations, and we had very high hopes,' stated Dan Neary, Northwest's Executive Vice President.

In 2022, after circulating an anti-LGBTQ+ email[12] to faculty and staff and reaffirming their strict lifestyle policies, Northwest University was added to the Campus Pride "Worst List" for LGBTQ+ folks.

The university is operated under the control of the Alaska, Montana, Oregon, Northwest, Southern Idaho, and Wyoming districts of the Assemblies of God.

The university is a member of the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), primarily competing in the Cascade Collegiate Conference (CCC) since the 1997–98 academic year.