C.M. Kinney - a former slave, distributed tracts and "The Great Controversy" throughout Kansas, Iowa, Missouri and the Midwest.  He became the first Black ordained Seventh-Day-Adventist minister.  As the  result of his work, churches sprang up in Missouri and Kansas.

In 1899, the Kansas City, Missouri church was organized with 14 new believers and 30 Sabbath School members.  There were 50 attending a Mission Sunday School, according to the district leader, Sydney Scott from the Kansas Conference.

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The Kansas City, Missouri group met in a rented hall until the property owned by the Pacific Press near the corner of 13th and Euclid Streets became available for purchase in 1926. The building on the property was a warehouse converted into a place of worship.  Funds were scarce because of the depression and World War II which made supplies difficult to obtain.  Elder Adolphus Webb started a building project using stones and steel from a demolished brewery.  This building  became The Beacon Light Church in 1942.

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Elizabeth Hanks, who later became Elizabeth Miller, married Elder Henry J. Miller who was the first Black Bible Worker in the Central Union Conference.  These were the parents of Helen E. Miller-Kanion.  Mrs. Miller was one of the original members of the Kansas City, Missouri church.

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Other early members were, Brother and Sister Cravens (Newman),  Daisy Timmons and her sister Mercedes Matthews,  Alice Hughes, brother and sister Penney, Sister Madison, Ada Thomas, Lorene Brown, Juanita Kenneymore, Francis Flounoy, Sister Oliver, Sallie Holmes, Clara Franklin of the Kansas City Call Newspaper, the Vertis family, Gertrude Valentine and family, Thelma Brown and family, Bertha Tillmon, Fannie Wright, Josephine Washington, Ruth Banks Johnson and family, along with many others who joined in the late 40's and early 50's.

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The pastors of the church are not known prior to the 1930's.  It is likely that a district leader was assigned from the Kansas Conference through the Central Union Conference.  Leaders were R.T. Hudson, Albert Gaynes Thompson and Louis B. Reynolds. After the 1930's, pastors included: 1942 - Adolphus Webb, 1947 - Henry Miller, 1952 - D.B. Reid, 1955 - Xavier Butler, 1956 and later- Monroe Burgess, G. Hefrin Taylor, Eugene Carter, J.D. Parker, and Rawdon Brown. 

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In 1972 the building at 4300 Linwood Boulevard was purchased and the church was named Linwood Boulevard Seventh-day Adventist Temple.  The pastor at that time was T.A. McNeally.  Other pastors included:  Hector Mouzon, Barry Brandon (interim), Randolph P. Stafford, James E. White, Jr., Emmit Slocumb, Gil Webb, Reuben Roundtree, Jr.,  Marcellus P. Howard,  James E. White, Jr. (2nd time), and Joseph T. Ikner II. Our current pastoral staff consists of Marvin Mclean Jr and Liz Adams. The Linwood Boulevard Seventh-Day-Adventist Temple is part of a world-wide organization with more than 15 million members in countries around the world.