But the mission continues, stronger than ever, in this city where neighbors are thrilled to see the institution thrive, six years after it nearly closed.

The school, located since 2008 on the former Bradford College campus along South Main Street in Haverhill, was renamed Northpoint Bible College  as of New Year’s Day. Affiliated with the Assemblies of God  fellowship of churches, the college continues to serve one purpose: training men and women for ministry in the Pentecostal tradition.

“People in the general public don’t have one clue about ‘Zion,’ it means nothing to them,” said Charles Crabtree, the college’s president. Some have wrongly assumed the school is Jewish, Crabtree explained, and such misunderstandings sometimes complicated missionary work by its students abroad.

“We thought it was better overall to remove any confusion, and ‘Northpoint’ is a good name,” he said.

The name change caps a stunning turnaround for the institution, which was preparing to close its doors in 2007. Since then, it has relocated from Barrington, R.I., to Haverhill, and doubled enrollment, from about 200 in 2008 to 404 this fall. Northpoint is taking steps to add its first master’s degree program, and increase its undergraduate student body to 500 in coming years.

As host to a growing school atop a prominent hill, Haverhill’s Bradford section once again draws energy year-round from bustling students, faculty, and staff. That’s been good for community morale and for local businesses.

On a snowy morning last month, students crammed for final exams, listened to a sermon from a dean, and prayed. Later, some would blow off steam by visiting local establishments such as Choice Fitness, a gym in the nearby Central Plaza retail complex.

“In the evening, I’ll see 10 to 12 of them walk in the door at the same time,” said Fitness Choice’s general manager, Nick Paquette. “They like to spread by word of mouth how much they enjoy our gym, their friends end up signing up — it’s been great for us.”

For Northpoint, the journey from the brink of closure befits a community that believes in miracles.

In Rhode Island, Zion couldn’t afford to maintain the 50,000-square-foot stone mansion that had been its home. The school needed millions for repairs just to meet fire codes. When all seemed hopeless, a billionaire family from Oklahoma came to the rescue.

Owners of the Hobby Lobby  chain of craft stores and benefactors of many Christian education projects, the Green family bought the old Bradford College property for $3.5 million in 2007 as a gift for Zion. The Greens also paid for renovations to the classroom building, and the installation of sprinklers in the gymnasium, among other improvements. Zion promptly gave up its Rhode Island property and relocated to the 19-acre campus in Haverhill.

For Zion, the extraordinary gift saved a school that had long survived on a shoestring and a prayer. Founded in East Providence in 1924 as the School of the Prophets, the institution paid no salaries and charged no tuition for its first 65 years, in part because many in Pentecostal circles were wary of higher education and didn’t do much to professionalize it, according to Crabtree. Still, Zion Bible College survived thanks to donations, volunteer teachers, and students grateful for free college educations.

More recently, Crabtree said, Pentecostals have become less skeptical of formal education. Rising expectations for leaders to be professionally educated are now helping fuel enrollment growth at Bible colleges, he said.

What’s more, the Missouri-headquartered Assemblies of God is growing in New England, which means job opportunities for Northpoint graduates. Between 2000 and 2010, the fellowship grew by 34 percent in Massachusetts, according to a census compiled in 2010 by the Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies. New Assemblies of God congregations in the region include Remix Church in Salem, Garden City Church in Beverly, and East Coast International Church in Lynn.

Some AOG churches have staff in more than one location, such as Calvary Christian Church , which has campuses in Lynnfield and Peabody. The arrangement creates opportunities for students such as Jorge E. Pabón, a Northpoint junior from Patterson, N.Y., with ambitions to teach, possibly in a church setting.