Lenny Smith
Leonard Smith is a singer, songwriter, and music publisher. His style of gospel-centered songs range from pop to folk to gospel and they all embrace a childlike simplicity. Lenny is best known in Christian music circles for writing the international worship standard "Our God Reigns" in 1973. Many popular Christian artists have covered this song including Phil Driscoll, Evie Tornquist, John Michael Talbot, Jimmy Swaggart, The Gaithers, Ken Copeland, New Life Worship, Carlton Pearson, Dana, LifeWay, and Marilla Hess, Word, Integrity Music, PTL, Maranatha! Music and Brentwood/Benson and Ronn Huff. In 2010, "Our God Reigns" was sung during the Papal Mass for Pope Benedict XVI in Bellahouston Park. It was a favorite of Pope John Paul II and was used during his visit in 1999 to North America and during a few of his convocations in South America.
Early life and education
Leonard Earl Smith Jr. was born in 1942 in Philadelphia, PA, at the Naval Hospital. He is the only son and second child of a career military father and a Catholic mother. Their family moved frequently, living in Philadelphia, Virginia, California, North Carolina, Guam, and finally settled in South Jersey.In 1960, Lenny left New Jersey and entered Jordan Evangelical Theological Seminary in Menominee, Michigan. He then attended Mount St. Paul Seminary in Waukesha, Wisconsin. His last four years were spent at Mount Saint Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg, MD., where he studied for the Catholic priesthood. He received his B.A. in Classical Philosophy in 1965. He pursued a master's in English Literature at Villanova, but never completed it.
In 1968, Lenny left the seminary and taught high school at Paul VI High School in Haddon Township, NJ. He was a guidance counselor for the freshman class. At the end of the year he was asked to leave; the reason given by the principal was a strained working relationship. Earlier in the year, a freshman girl's grades dropped from straight A's to D's and Lenny called her into his office to see what was going on. After finding out that the girl was being sexually abused by the science teacher, Lenny addressed the issue with the principal, forcing him to dismiss the science teacher. At the end of the year, Lenny was also dismissed.
In 1969, Lenny taught religion at Gloucester Catholic High School in Gloucester, NJ. This year was wonderful and very satisfying, but he wanted to teach at a public school, so the following year he taught Latin and English at Cinnaminson High School in Cinnaminson, NJ. This was the year Lenny got involved with the Charismatic Movements and had a dramatic spiritual awakening. He became a bit of a fanatic and decided to teach his regular course material Monday through Thursday, but taught the Bible every Friday, even though many of the kids attending this public school were Jewish. The kids loved the Bible classes but in a couple of months three sets of parents came in to complain. Lenny 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. Lenny thought it was a huge success, but the priests were worried he was starting a cult. At the end of the year, Lenny was let go.
Lenny 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 Lenny to teach that there were many messiahs, like Martin Luther King and Mahatma Gandhi. When Lenny 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, Lenny 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, Lenny introduced more original songs which were well received. In 1967, Lenny left the seminary, but continued to lead mass at different Catholic churches.In 1969, Lenny 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 Lenny led worship for two years. Lenny 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, Lenny was out of work and mildly depressed. One morning he read Isaiah 52:7 from the Bible, "How lovely on the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news...." He was so moved and encouraged by the passage that he wrote "Our God Reigns" in five minutes—one verse and the chorus.Bob Mumford, a traveling evangelist, visited The Living Word in NJ and heard Lenny sing "Our God Reigns." Bob loved the song and taught it at each church and conference he visited all over the world during the next couple of years. An Australian company, Scripture in Song, released a songbook 1979 called "Scripture in Song Volume I" which included two of Lenny's songs--"Our God Reigns" and "City O City." This songbook was sold and brought world-wide attention to these songs. A Catholic Prayer community in Ann Arbor, MI. also released a songbook and album which brought much attention to the song.
"Our God Reigns" became extremely popular in England. A pastor in England decided to add additional verses to the song, which at the time only had one verse. Lenny contacted him, asking him not to add additional verses and the pastor insisted he would anyway. To this day, in the UK the version of "Our God Reigns" is known with the pastor's additional verses. This motivated Lenny to write the next four verses which took a couple of years to finish. "Our God Reigns" is still being used and circulated today around the world. It has been recorded on over 55 albums and printed in 35 songbooks and hymnals and exists in over 20 languages.
Papal Procession
Lenny received four different phone calls regarding papal masses in which they would use "Our God Reigns" in large gatherings. Pope John Paul II had said that "Our God Reigns" was his favorite contemporary liturgical song in English. The song became a consistent part of the Catholic Songbooks and Hymnals and Missalettes.In 2010, "Our God Reigns" was sung for the Papal Procession at Bellahouston Park in Glasgow, Scotland. Evie also sang the song at a Papal Mass in UK
Broadening His Ministry
Lenny was raised Protestant even though his mother was a devout Catholic. His mother Marie would attend mass each Sunday but drop her three children off at the local Protestant church at the insistence of her non-religious husband. When Lenny was 12, he started to attend the Catholic church with his mother, after his father left them. He became fascinated by Catholicism and entered the seminary after high school to study for the priesthood in 1960.In 1969 Lenny became involved with the Catholic Charismatics. He would intermingle with the Protestant Charismatics and the Pentecostals at this time because the groups were interested in the same things. He visited The Gospel Temple, a Protestant charismatic church in Philadelphia, and that became his church home for the next several years.