John Longhurst, senior Tabernacle organist for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, officially retired following the weekly Mormon Tabernacle Choir broadcast on Sunday, November 26, 2007. His career as a Tabernacle organist has spanned 30 years. The 22 – Thanksgiving. His contributions to the music of the Church are something that Latter-day Saints (commonly called “Mormons”) are indeed thankful for.
Brother Longhurst may be best known among Latter-day Saints as an organ accompanist for the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and for general conferences of the Church where the Mormons gather twice a year to receive counsel from the prophet, apostles, and other leaders of the Church. He is also the composer of the music for “I Believe in Christ”, a beloved hymn found in the Mormon hymnal.
The words to the hymn were written by Bruce R. McConkie, (1915-1985) then a member of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles. As an apostle, Elder McConkie was a special witness of Jesus Christ, just as His twelve apostles were at the time of His ministry. Elder McConkie’s heartfelt hymn reflects his deep conviction that Christ is our Savior:
I believe in Christ; he is my King!
With all my heart to him I’ll sing;
I’ll raise my voice in praise and joy,
In grand amens my tongue employ.I believe in Christ; he is God’s Son.
On earth to dwell his soul did come.
He healed the sick; the dead he raised.
Good works were his; his name be praised…I believe in Christ; he ransoms me.
From Satan’s grasp he sets me free,
And I shall live with joy and love
In his eternal courts above.
Brother Longhurst told the Deseret Morning News about his experience writing the music for this hymn. As the Church music committee was compiling the 1985 version of the hymnal, he was asked to compose music for a poem that Elder McConkie had written. The original text had eight verses. The music committee for the Church gave Brother Longhurst six verses, and he cut them down to four and began work on the music.
Elder McConkie was very ill at the time, so the two did not collaborate. However, Brother Longhurst did learn that Elder McConkie wanted all eight verses included in the final version of the hymn. After learning of this, he revised his composition. The version found in the hymnal that Mormons sing today has four verses, but each of these verses is actually made of two of Elder McConkie’s verses. Since the project was on a deadline, Brother Longhurst made what he called “a very desperate maneuver.” As he explained to the Deseret Morning News, “You (now) sing through it once and you come to a half cadence. Then you repeat it and come to a complete cadence, and that completes one verse of music that is actually two verses of text.”
Regardless of the precise form that the hymn has taken, it has become a much-loved hymn of the Mormon people, expressing the sincere testimony of one called to stand as a witness for Jesus Christ.
Brother Longhurst was involved in many aspects of the Church’s music program, many of them unheralded to the public. Members of the LDS Church, as well as countless others who have been touched by the music of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, express their sincere thanks for his years of service.
