to complain. Smith refused to stop and at the end of the year, he was let go. In 1970, he returned to Gloucester Catholic High School, teaching religion. Instead of sticking with just the standard curriculum, he brought his guitar to class, sang, prayed, and read the Bible, having "little" revivals at times in the classroom. Once a month, Lenny held a prayer gathering in town for his students in an auditorium. Smith thought it was a huge success, but the priests were worried he was starting a cult. At the end of the year, Smith was let go. Smith started painting houses and doing carpentry. In 1972, he started teaching religion at Bishop Eustace Preparatory School in Cherry Hill, NJ. He continued to bring his guitar to class and led mass in the chapel. The head of the religion department refused to let Lenny teach that Jesus was the only Messiah. He wanted Smith to teach that there were many messiahs, like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. When Smith refused, he was forced to resign. He went back to painting houses and eventually expanded to remodeling and building houses. He did that for 35 years—the whole time writing songs at night and leading worship on Sundays with his '69 Gibson J45 guitar at various churches. Music career Early career In 1965, at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary, Smith started writing songs for the guitar masses that were being introduced at the seminary. The first song he wrote is called, "The New Jerusalem". He introduced it in the chapel in 1965 which was received with mixed feelings. Slowly, Smith introduced more original songs which were well received. In 1967, Smith left the seminary, but continued to lead mass at different Catholic churches. In 1969, Smith and his wife Marian became involved in the Catholic Charismatic Movement, which involved expressive worship, dancing, and speaking in tongues. In 1970, they attended a Protestant Charismatic Church in Philadelphia called The Gospel Temple, which was a multi-cultural church lead by Pastor John Poole. An off-shoot was formed in New Jersey called, the "Living Word Community," where Smith led worship for two years. Smith resigned over great concern about the church's embrace of the doctrine and practice of "shepherding," also called "discipling." this pyramid-like leadership model eventually imploded. Our God Reigns In 1973, Smith was out of work and mildly depressed. One morning he read