The congregation now known as the New Testament Church of Christ was founded in November 1981. The original goal was to meet the spiritual needs of the growing number of people from the Philippines who were coming to Hong Kong to work. It was the first Church of Christ / Christian Church in Hong Kong (and almost the first of any denomination here, other than Roman Catholic) to focus very much attention on these people. At that time there were around 11,000 people from the Philippines living and working in Hong Kong. Today there are over 10 times that many, and there are now many other congregations, of almost every denomination, made up largely of people from the Philippines.

For most of the first 10 years of its existence, this church met in the home of the founding missionaries, Ben and Karen Rees. Eventually, after the church had more than outgrown the Rees home, the Reeses were able to find another place for the church to meet that the church could afford out of its own offerings. For one year the church met in the Hong Kong Mennonite Centre. Since March 1992, it has been meeting in a room on the 6th floor of the YMCA in Tsimshatsui.