The North Bronx S.D.A. Church originated as a Branch Sabbath School of the Yonkers S.D. A. Church on May 20, 1967. The shade of a large tree on property owned by the Church at East 219th Street, served as the Sanctuary for eleven (11) individuals, led by Elder Louis Wisdom. One week later, May 27, 1967, as a result of the efforts of Elder Wisdom and Elder Michele Sicale, the small group worshipped in rented space at the Emmanuel Baptist Church, 216th Street and White Plains Road.

The group experienced such rapid growth that by October 1967 they were organized by the Greater New York Conference as the North Bronx Seventh-Day Adventist Company. A year later, September 1968, they were organized into a Church with 56 foundation members. The committed leadership and Christian dedication of Elder Wisdom and the members were blessed to such an extent that by 1972, when Pastors Owen Holness and Trevor Fraser assumed the responsibility of leading the flock, the membership stood at 1 17. There was also enough money in the Building Fund to motivate serious consideration in looking for ownership of a church property.

The members of North Bronx have always faithfully requested the Lord to provide dedicated spiritual leadership, and He has always provided the right pastor at the right time. The demands of a growing Grand Concourse Church soon required the full time services of Pastors Holness and Fraser, so Pastor A.R. Haig was called upon to provide supervision. His tenure was not long, however, and in 1974 Dr. Austin Scarlett was appointed Pastor of the Church.

With the increase in membership, the need for their own building became more acute and in December 1975, they purchased property at 874 East 231 st Street (at Bronxwood Ave.). The intention was to occupy the building on the property while steps were taken to extend it into a Sanctuary to seat approximately 400 members. Groundbreaking exercises took place on June 4, 19 7 8 for the extension, but it soon became apparent that the size and location of this property would not be able to accomodate the enormous growth in membership. So again a determined effort was undertaken to find a new church home.
In April of 1979, Pastor Linford L. Martin assumed leadership of the constantly growing congregation, and in November of that year purchase of the now occupied premises at Brorxwood Avenue was finalized. The North Bronx Church Building Committee with Elder Arnold Edwards as Chairman, and The Greater New York Conference, immediately set to work in contract-ing for the renovation program to make this long dream a reality. The renovation process was, to say the least, a test of Faith and Determination. In fact, renovation is still not fully completed. But no amount of difficulty can prevent God's Church from being Triumphant.

Another significant milestone was passed when Renovation of the main Sanctuary was completed. Inauguration of the Sanctuary took the form of Special Services of Thanksgiving and Praise, beginning on Friday, September 24, and continuing through Sunday, September 26, 1982. There was, by then, almost 400 faithful, dedicated, courageous members, prepared to carry out the Great Commission in the community.

Inauguration signalled the start of an enormous upsurge in new membership. At the same time, the members decided to provide a variety of social services to the community. Thus the Better Living Center came into being. Through this facility church members could provide such programs as Stop Smoking, Vegetarian cooking classes, and Dinners and Gift Baskets for Senior Citizens and Shut-Ins. In conjunction with the Greater New York Van Program, "Meals on Wheels" are also provided for the horneless.

Pastor Martin was instrumental in organizing and being the Evangelist for a number of Crusades, which resulted in many new converts. Blessed with such harvests a "Daughter" was born, the Victory Seventh-Day Adventist Company. This took place on December 3, 1983 with 94 foundation members. (Victory was organized into full church status by the Greater New York Conference on May 26, 1984.

After serving North Bronx for six years, Pastor Martin was called to minister to the larger Grand Concourse Church. Again The Lord provided a dynamic leader in the person of Pastor Roy A. Gordon who was introduced to the congregation on September 24, 1985.

Pastor Gordon's three- year tenure was to see more impressive growth in all phases of the church's ministry. A second "daughter" was born within three years when the Philadelphia Company (now with approximately 1 10 members) was launched in December of 1986.
North Bronx was again destined to lose another driving force and on October 1, 1988 Pastor Gordon was replaced by Pastor G. Earl Knight, who took the mantle of leadership without missing a stride. His evangelistic programs resulted in the birth of two more "daughters", Emmanuel (in 1989) and Living Waters (in 1991).

To be continued ..........