Dennis Jernigan, Part I

Friday afternoon I got good news and bad news: the good news was that I was going to mix Dennis Jernigan in concert at Westover on Saturday night; the bad news was that I was going to mix Dennis Jernigan in concert at Westover on Saturday night.

It was good news in that Dennis is one of my heroes – more about that in Dennis Jernigan – Part II. The bad news is that late Friday I received the contract rider that specified what was required of the sound system – in very specific terms. I’ll make a long story short and just say that there were a lot of technical requirements that we didn’t meet, and in that short time frame could NOT meet. My immediate response was to call one of the other guys involved and ask him what his response was when he saw the rider, and we both were alarmed at the situation we found ourselves in.

My next response was blistering anger toward Rick, our Spiritual Formation Minister who set all this up. Since the rider was part of the contract, he had known about these requirements for months and was just now sharing them. Then my response was that of sheer terror. How on earth was I (note the implied sense of ownership and responsibility in that little one-letter word) going to pull this off, since there seemingly was no other choice but to proceed. My expectation had been that Rick was going to rent a sound rig and technician like we had done for the other two concerts in this series, that of Chris Rice and Nichole Nordeman. Now I find out that I (there it is again) was going to have to pull this together, without the needed techno-stuff and no time to get it.

I made an emergency trip to the building to check on a couple of microphones and look for some boom-type stands. In the meantime, Brian, the other guy involved had been in touch with Rick with our concerns, and Rick’s response seemed to be “I know a guy who has done this before and it’s no big deal that we don’t have all that stuff, and he said he would loan us some boom mic stands.” Snarl! Fume!

Saturday afternoon, I arrived at the building (hours before I needed to be there) and found a guy waiting to deliver the boom stands, and he also had a couple of high-dollar microphones of exactly the type needed to mic the piano. I helped him carry the stuff in, and he asked to look at the sound system. He asked me where a couple of the needed techno-stuff items were, and when I confessed that we didn’t have them, he takes out his phone and makes a couple of calls and asks people to bring these needed items. Then, after a few more questions and seeing the abject terror in my eyes as the time for the sound check grew nearer, he asked me if I wanted him to stay and help work this program.

To make this a blog of near-normal size, it turns out that this guy, Mike, is a professional sound technician who works for the biggest sound event outfit in town and is also the sound guy for High Point Fellowship, where Dennis has appeared on two other occasions and he knew just exactly what was needed. What's more, he obtained it with his magic phone, set it up and stayed and mixed the concert, which was wonderful!

The concert was over – the sound was awesome, thanks to my private angel Mike, and I was rehearsing in my mind what I wanted to cover in my Come-To-Jesus meeting with Rick, when I got to thinking. What just happened here? Who was right? Rick, with his attitude that “God is going to provide – show a little trust” or me with my “How could you do this to ME!” attitude. I’m not through thinking through it, but I am sure that there is a lesson to be learned in this exercise. The only question is it a lesson that Rick needs to learn, or is it a lesson that I need to learn?