Directory of Contemporary Worship Musicians - Way of Life Literature

In 1997, Smith joined the Roman Catholic Kathy Troccoliand 40 other CCM artists to record Love One Another, anecumenical song that talks about tearing down the walls ofdenominational division.Smith and guitarist-songwriter Billy Sprague had alsoperformed with Troccoli at a concert in November 1985 inTampa, Florida. e concert was sponsored by Youth forChrist and the First Assembly of God of Clearwater, Florida(St. Petersburg Times, Florida, Nov. 9, 1985, Religious Section,p. 3).Smith’s 1998 single “Live the Life” was “inspired by the lifeof the Catholic St. Francis of Assisi” (“New Releases October28, 1997,” Christian Music Online, http://christianmusic.miningco.com/library/blcmweekly.htm).In the Fall of 2009 Michael W. Smith toured with theRoman Catholic Matt Maher on the New Hallelujah Tour.(See “Matt Maher” in this Directory.)Smith says that he has had many charismatic experiences,though he doesn’t like the label “charismatic” because of“negative baggage associated with the term.” At a Full GospelBusiness Men’s meeting he was “slain in the spirit” for 15minutes and “laughed all the way home” (Charisma, April2000, p. 55). Another time he felt “a bolt of electricity gothrough my body from the top of my head to my toes—wham!” He also started laughing uncontrollably—“rolling onthe floor,” “hyperventilating”—on that occasion. is fit of“holy laughter” happened during a prayer meeting for his sonwho had been diagnosed with “a rare behavior disorder forwhich there was no reliable cure.”Smith recorded his first worship album in 2001 atCarpenter’s Home Church in Lakeland, Florida. is waswhere the laughing-drunken “revival” began via RodneyHoward-Browne’s ministry in 1993. e following is adescription of what happened:318