MUSKOGEE, Okla. (BP)–Because he pulled back from the edge of disaster, worship leader Dennis Jernigan wants others to know they can be free in Christ.
That message comes forth in his concerts — including a recent appearance at the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ evangelism conference — and his new book and album, “This Is My Destiny.”
“It can all be summed up in the title,” said Jernigan, a lifelong Southern Baptist. “I believe that’s one of the highest forms of praise to God” — “to declare who I am in Christ because of what he’s done.”
A graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University, he has been nominated for two Dove awards and written a number of popular praise songs, including “Great Is the Lord Almighty,” “Thank You,” “I Belong to Jesus” and “You Are My All in All.”
In addition to singing at the Texas conference in Fort Worth, Jernigan last year led a Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary chapel service.
The seminary appearance generated an invitation to return and more than a dozen letters. The correspondents told him the service helped free them from bondage to sin and find new joy through faith in Christ.
However, there is a crucial element to his testimony that tends to upset some, he said — his homosexual activity as a teen and college student.
While he can’t offer any statistics, he said a “network” of men and women were involved in this sin at his college in the late 1970s and early ’80s. Several of his acquaintances, among them two close friends, died of AIDS in the past decade.
In a poignant story that appears in the book, Jernigan tells of finally confessing his problem to a Christian leader. But the man, who was married, responded with an invitation to become intimate.
After their encounter, Jernigan went home, turned on a space heater and lay down next to the fumes. But the thought of dying scared him so badly he turned off the gas.
Soon after at a Christian concert, the lead singer said, “There’s someone here who has done something; you’re afraid if anyone knew, it would be awful. God wants you to know he sees and loves you anyway.”
“I had the deep impression she was talking to me,” he said. That night, he said he placed this habit on God’s shoulders, put the old self in the grave and began a journey toward wholeness.
Despite years of same-sex relationships, the Oklahoma native maintains he was born again at age 9 when accepted Christ as Savior but didn’t know all that meant.
Some church members dispute the claim, saying he couldn’t have been a Christian and engaged in homosexuality. Others question why he must talk about the past when it is so distasteful. The singer also generates occasional picketing by homosexual rights groups, some declaring that he “spreads hate.”
But Jernigan insists the only way others will know about his triumph is if he talks about it. Had he known there was hope for those dealing with homosexuality, he said he would have sought help long before he did.
“So much healing has happened in my life, I feel like I was never homosexual,” said the father of nine children, who range in age from 4 to 14. “I’m totally heterosexual. I’ve been born again.
“The book is about the process of what I’ve gone through personally. I’m more free than I ever thought I could be. I hope to help somebody else escape bondage.”
While Southern Baptists correctly take the stand that homosexuality is wrong, Jernigan said they need to be more sensitive to those who struggle with it.
As a sensitive child, he faced classmates’ taunts and often heard crude remarks about “gays” at church. Members’ condemnation of homosexuals convinced him, somehow, this sin was too vile for God to forgive, he said.
Jernigan said it doesn’t take experience with this lifestyle to help someone overcome it, just a willingness to encourage and help the individual.
“I finally confided in a friend who said, ‘I’ll walk through it with you, whatever it takes,'” he recalled. “It was the love of God and this friend’s lovingkindness that led me to repent and help soften my heart.”
And while he isn’t proud of what he did in the past, the songwriter said he wants to let others know that their setbacks shouldn’t prevent them from serving God, either.
“When you get set free from prison, all you want to do is praise the one who got you out,” Jernigan said. “That’s why I do what I do. I know what it’s like to be bound up, so I want to praise the one who set me free.”
The book and accompanying CD, both titled, “This Is My Destiny,” were released through Christian bookstores March 23.
