Someone looking from the outside in at Dennis Jernigan might
try to explain that his work at a church in 1989 was what helped foster the
song “You Are My All in All” that he wrote that year. And, perhaps that would
be the simplest way to examine its conception and entry into its composer’s
biography. But, so much had happened to this modern-day psalmist, that that perspective
would be shortchanging the depth of his experience, as well as those of the many
people who’ve known him and been changed because of their identification with
his story. There was something like
synergy at work – a process that Dennis says he counts upon to give birth to
the music he composes. In fact, singing (like what has been happening for
centuries, see the picture) is synergy.
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He was in Oklahoma City, this 30-year old worship leader
with a new life and a story that was compelling. Dennis Jernigan had been a
homosexual 10 years earlier, but thorough a series of events, he came out of
that lifestyle, and is today married to his wife Melinda, with whom he has nine
children. Dennis relates that his honesty and desire to be genuine are because
he feels others share his background and can also be healed the way he has
been. It was a 6:00 AM worship service he was directing one morning that set
the scene for “You Are My All in All”. Someone might say, hearing Jernigan
describe it, that he was ambidextrous that day, the way an athlete is able to use
either hand to his advantage as he engages in his God-given talent. Playing the
piano with his left hand and writing lyrics with his right hand, Dennis let
flow out or him what was inside that day. But, there was also another element
present, one that should not be taken for granted. There were the fellow
worshippers who were praying as Dennis guided the group to express their needs
to the Holy One. Perhaps it’s no accident that many people have reportedly been
able to overcome their own troubled lifestyles after following Jernigan’s
confessing example. If it works, you keep returning to the successful method.
And so, DJ, as he’s called, has habitually developed his songs through the
worship method he used that day – carrying a book to record the words he
expected the Lord to give him as he and his co-worshippers spoke to Him and
exposed their lives to His grace. It’s kind of impulsive and unstructured, what
you see a guy, who’s really just a conduit—a tool—do, when the he crafts a
piece of art using nothing but the energy that is directed his way. No
accident, Dennis would say, but a calculated expectation of something special
from God.
Jernigan has done this music-making over and over and over
again, to the tune of a couple of thousand with his name on them. Someone says
he has a gift, and that’s undoubtedly true. But, this composer also says that
what he does makes a lot of sense biblically, too. Zephaniah 3:17 is something
that Dennis Jernigan says he takes with practical seriousness, that God sings
over him; so, when Dennis is singing, he believes that the Divine joins in -- a
voice with a message that has his attention. That’s who sang “You Are My All in
All” first, Dennis might say. What song is He singing to me or you?
The source for Dennis
Jernigan’s song story is the book “Our God Reigns: The Stories behind Your
Favorite Praise and Worship Songs”, by Phil Christensen and Shari MacDonald, Kregel
Publications, 2000.
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