Community Christian Church, Kansas City

Community Christian Church in Kansas City stands as a unique piece of architectural history, designed by the renowned Frank Lloyd Wright. Located across from the Country Club Plaza's main shopping district at Main Street and East 46th Street, this church is affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a denomination well-represented in the Kansas City area.

In April 1940, after their previous church was lost to a fire, the congregation commissioned Wright to design a new building. Wright's design was based on a parallelogram and included elements he had developed for the Johnson Wax Company, along with a visionary feature: a spire of light. However, due to high construction costs, the project's scale was reduced. The auditorium was downsized from the planned 1,200 seats to 900, various design details were simplified, and the building was covered in gunite—a lightweight concrete—despite Wright's objections. Additionally, the spire of light could not be realized due to the technological limitations of the time. Nonetheless, the church was dedicated on January 4, 1942, and has since served its congregation faithfully.

In 1994, the Steeple of Light, envisioned by artist Dale Eldred and completed by Roberta Lord after Eldred's death in 1993, was installed on the church roof in Kansas City. This spire, housed in a perforated dome on the building's northwest corner, features four 16-inch xenon bulbs, each powered by 40,000 volts and generating 300 million candlepower, totaling 1.2 billion candlepower. The light beam, visible up to 10 miles away and reaching 3 miles high, is usually lit on weekends, extended during holidays, and darkened before Easter. It is a prominent feature in the city's annual Plaza lighting ceremony.