Dennis Jernigan

Dennis Jernigan is a singer-songwriter of contemporary Christian music. He is native to Oklahoma, and headquarters a music-based ministry from there. As of 2007, Jernigan lives in Muskogee, Oklahoma, with his wife of more than 25 years and their nine children.

Biography
A primary source of inspiration for Jernigan's message and music is an experience he describes as his "deliverance from homosexuality", which he states to have begun during a 2nd Chapter of Acts concert in 1981 at Oklahoma Baptist University. Jernigan has stated that he believes his prior identification as homosexual was related to a childhood perception that he had been rejected by his father. He claims that both perceptions were erroneous:

As a boy I needed a role model to show me the way to manhood. But because I felt rejected by the main man in my life I, in turn, rejected him and began to yearn for intimacy with a man in perverse ways. Because of this wrong thinking I came to believe I was homosexual. It must have begun early in my life because I remember having those feelings for the same gender at a very early age.

It was then (during a critical moment at the 2nd Chapter of Acts concert) that I lost the need to be accepted or loved by others because I realized Jesus would love me and accept me no matter what, even when I was rejected by others! It was also at this same time that those sexually perverse thoughts and desires were changed...and He began to replace them with holy and pure thoughts about what sexual love was all about.

Following the experience at the concert, Jernigan developed a ministry based on his personal experience, which he shares at churches and other locations around the world.