John Longhurst was an organist for the Tabernacle Choir from 1977 through 2007. He is also noted for writing the music to the Latter-day Saint hymn "I Believe in Christ" and being one of the few main forces behind the design of the Conference Center organ. He is the author of Magnum Opus: The Building of the Schoenstein Organ at the Conference Center of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. As a child, Longhurst lived on a ranch near Placerville, California. In 1949, his father died and the family subsequently moved to Salt Lake City, Utah. As a young man, Longhurst served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Eastern Atlantic States Mission. During the mid-1960s, Longhurst was a singing member of the Tabernacle Choir.