Early influences date from the 1940s when a series of meetings conducted by overseas 'Bethel Temple' missionaries resulted in the planting of congregations in New Zealand and Australia.
The name 'New Life Churches' was adopted during the 1988 ICNZ Conference and a structure of national governance, including elected apostles and regional leaders, was agreed upon.
Both these men had been leading figures in the former ICNZ, and pioneers in spreading the Latter Rain Revival in New Zealand.
Many member churches became involved heavily in social conservative political activism against the ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women in 1984, the establishment of Lyndhurst Hospital (a free-standing abortion clinic) in Christchurch, and passage of the Homosexual Law Reform Act in 1986.
In keeping with Pentecostal Congregationalist philosophy, individual churches in the NLCNZ are autonomous and not governed by the central organization.