Radical Restoration: A Call for Pure and Simple Christianity

This is the first book by F. Lagard Smith I read and I must say that it was one of the best books I have read in my life. He does not hold back on his opinions, some things I did not agree with but over all the book was very helpful. He discusses many things faceing the church today and he gives some possible answers. But formost he gives a call to members of the church to stop allowing Demoninations to creep into our worship and corrupt it. But insted we need to finish what was started many years ago.

While this may not be understood by those outside the churches of Christ, the rest of us can applaud F. LeGard Smith for his tireless dedication, complete research, and devoted heart that produced this spectacular book. Comlete with vivid examples, LeGard explores the direction the church has taken and offers heartwarming ways to improve our connection with God and each other. Go back to your roots, he seems to say over and over. Do it the way the first century church did. Christ is about simplicity, and that is the call: back to the simple gospel. Thank you LeGard for telling us what we already knew in our hearts.

In this thought-provoking book, F. Lagard Smith invites us to lift our eyes above the two-dimensional "flatland" of today's "Church of Christ" denomination to the radical, multi-dimensional world of original Christianity. Even if your perspective on that world differs somewhat from Smith's, the panorama definitely is worth taking in.After presenting a powerful case for the ideal of restoration, Smith takes aim at many features of today's church that bear little resemblance to the picture presented in the New Testament. He begins with our token, ritualized observance of the Lord's Supper and argues for a return to a memorial "love feast." He proceeds with a critique of our substitution of large, expensive church buildings with spectator pews for the intimate, cost-effective "house churches" of the first-century. He continues with a stinging critique of today's distant, corporate-like elderships in place of the loving, hands-on shepherds known by our ancient cousins. He also critiques today's "pulpit ministers" and "youth ministries" as departures from first-century patterns of evanglism and parental responsibility.At the end of the book, Smith takes the unusual and refreshing step of including critical comments from others who reviewed his ideas before their publication. These critiques of his critiques make very interesting reading and add balance to the book.Although some may view Smith's perspectives as clouded by an overemphasis on first-century "patterns," Smith provides many valuable and challenging insights into the modern, unhealthy "patterns" into which we have fallen. From that standpoint, the book makes an important contribution toward the restoration of genuine Christianity.

As always, LaGard makes us aware of the challenges Christ's church is facing- with helpful suggested actions and attitudes. Concerning the issues at hand for those who are trying to be truly undenominational Christians, this book helps us to see our underlying problems and practical hindrances to restoring primitve Christian life and worship. With much thought and admitted radical challenge, this book is sure to be a fuel for a firey passion to be counter-culture in the traditional American church and will bring no small change of perspective to those who take it seriosly. Sacrificial living and giving, mutual active worship, congragational life, Chritian fellowship, leadership organization, ministry and evangelism, and the forms/methods of accomplishing the desired functions of church are only a few items discussed with a fresh look at Scripture and with challenging suggestions for the process of first century restoration in the twenty-first century. This book was written with the insights of a former professor of law who has the ability to assimilate thoughts many of us have been having, but yet unable to express with clarity and offers some radically new thoughts that will make you tremble as you visualize a dynamic community of believers that seems to reflect something similiar to the first century church- with all their daily concern for one another and zeal for the Kingdom of God! Read this book and be prepared to go back to the future- hold on to your thinking cap though, because this book will probably thrust you out of your chair with a zeal to do something- sort of "radical"- like being just a pure and simple Christian in an American cultural church!

As always, the author gives us a glimpse of our current challenges and likely future challenges as he offers suggested actions and attitudes to deal with the trends and issues at hand. As a former law professor, LaGard has a unique way of assimilating thoughts that his readers may currently be having, but yet have not been able to express them in the insightful ways that his pen is able to do. This book is a definite call to re-think our current approach to the way we are trying to reconstruct the early church scene along with its lifestyle and community atmosphere. Modern traditional passive worship practices, the shift in shepherds roles, denomiational attitudes toward Christ's church, congregational size and character, as well as call to a radical sacrificial giving and lifestyle are only a few of the discussed topics you'll find in this radically practical book. It was written with the ever current need in mind for Christian unity and specifically challenges those whose desire is to be "Christians" only in name and practice and to restore primitive Christian life, worship, and ministry. This book is a must-read for all elders/shepherds, and anyone who has sensed the need to be radical in an American church culture that they might experience intimate Christian fellowship twenty centuries removed from the first century. It's back to the future- hold on to you thinking cap!