ANG IGLESIA SA OZAMIZ CITY, INCORPORATED

The church as a gathering of believers started as part of a group of Kristohanon or Christians that gathered as churches in barrios like Iglesia sa Mindog, Iglesia sa Bagakay and other similar churches in various places in Mindanao as early as the late 1940's. On the earlier part of the 70's, upon contact with the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, the leaders of the group came to see the universal and local aspects of the church as revealed in the New Testament. The two above mentioned ministers clearly presented that according to the New Testament although the church is only one universally (Matt. 16:18) yet it is expressed practically as many local churches in many cities and localities like the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1), church in Antioch (Acts 13:1) church in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:3) and so on. The ground of locality as the unique ground upon which the church is practically built is very consistent in the New Testament. The boundary of a local church therefore is the boundary of locality. No church is smaller or larger than the boundary of locality. Upon seeing this clear pattern from the New Testament the leaders of the group abandon their practice of iglesia sa barrio (smaller than a locality in as much as they abandon the practice of having a collection of churches under one umbrella organization (larger than a locality). They followed this pattern in the New Testament and the believers living in Ozamiz City started to gather together as the church in Ozamiz City. When they decided to register the church to the Securities and Exchange Commission in 1995, the English title was rejected, so they use the Cebuano title Ang Iglesia sa Ozamiz City instead. The SEC approved the registration on February 10, 1995.