29-06-2025
Why a Black baptist church adopted ‘Come, Come Ye Saints': ‘It's one of our staples'
It's a good thing 'Come, Come Ye Saints' is so familiar to James Davis Jr. and the Third Baptist Church choir in San Francisco.
Davis Jr. recently began rehearsals with the cast as the musical director for the upcoming Broadway show 'Purple Rain' after finishing a long stint in the same role on the western tour of 'Hamilton.'
But last weekend he left rehearsals in New York City to jet across the country to rehearse the great pioneer anthem of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the Third Baptist choir.
Davis Jr. couldn't miss the opportunity to be the choir's guest director for the Sunday worship service and pastor emeritus designation service honoring the Rev. Dr. Amos C. Brown, a civil rights activist and Third Baptist's pastor for the past 49 years.
Years ago, the Rev. Dr. Brown hired Davis Jr. out of Morehouse College to be Third Baptist's music director. Davis Jr. called the outgoing pastor 'legendary.'
'He's one of the few that's left that marched with Dr. King,' he said. 'He's a walking history book, an almanac.'
'Come, Come Ye Saints' has always been one of the Rev. Dr. Brown's favorites, Davis Jr. said.
'The choir has historically sung 'Come, Come Ye Saints' going back decades,' he said. 'We used to do the other arrangement that is a little more complicated, by Leroy Robertson, but Maestro (Mack) Wilberg's arrangement was just a little more accessible, given the fact that I just got in on Friday and we only had two rehearsals to put it together.'
The Rev. Dr. Brown explained in a 2019 Church News video that 'Come, Come Ye Saints' and the iconic Black spiritual 'Lift Every Voice and Sing' are two of his favorites because they tell the stories of people who 'excel, achieve and remain loyal to their God.'
Third Baptist's choir has performed both for years.
'Come, Come Ye Saints' resonates with Third Baptist in a special way.
Davis Jr. said Third Baptist purposefully kept Latter-day Saint pioneer songwriter William Clayton's original text for the third verse that says, 'We'll find the place which God for us prepared, far away in the West.'
'We keep it because the text fits this congregation as the first Black church on the West Coast,' Davis Jr. said.
'It's one of our staples,' Deacon Anthony Wagner said. 'It speaks to us, just as it did to Latter-day Saints coming across the prairies.'
Another Third Baptist church member approached a reporter before the Sunday morning service, as the choir rehearsed the hymn one last time, and reverently repeated his favorite part, 'No toil nor labor fear; But with joy wend your way. Though hard to you this journey may appear, Grace shall be as your day.'
The church's new pastor, the Rev. Devon Jerome Crawford, stepped to the pulpit after the choir completed the final lines of the hymn during the morning worship service — 'Oh, how we'll make this chorus swell — All is well! All is well!"
'Praise God,' the Rev. Crawford said. 'All is well.'
Elder Matthew S. Holland, a General Authority Seventy, spoke during the Third Baptist service to honor the Rev. Dr. Brown on assignment from the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
'I might have thought I came in a covered wagon when I heard that rendition of 'Come, Come Ye Saints.' I was so moved,' Elder Holland said. 'That's as touched as I've ever been hearing that hymn, and I've heard it all my life.'
