I remember the first time I heard about a “house-church.” My initial impression was, “What is the big deal? Most congregations begin in the homes of Christians.” Then I was told, the modern house-church movement thinks homes are the only scriptural place for a church to assemble. My ears perked up at that point and I was asked if I had read the book Radical Restoration by F. LaGard Smith.” Mr. Smith’s recent confession about the movement he started is the inspiration for the title of this article.
The YouTube algorithm helped me discover a couple of interviews recently conducted by a preacher from Virginia named Caleb Robertson1. Last month, Robertson spoke with F. LaGard Smith for over two hours. About thirty-three minutes into the interview, Smith stopped and said something jaw-dropping. A quarter of a century after convincing a great number of Christians to join an untried movement or demand dramatic changes in how their local congregations operated, Smith acknowledged his experiment was a failure.
Here are Smith’s exact words: “I’ve got to give you an absolute, total confession. I’ve tried radical restoration, and it is hard.” After Smith clarifies he is referring to functioning in the way laid out in his book, he admits this, “I’ve had one very good experience with it. Then because we all kind of moved away from this town at the same time. That went away. Haven’t been able to recapture that.”
Forgive my incredibly cultured response here, “Well, duh.”
At the time Radical Restoration was published, Smith declared house churches to be the only example given in the Bible as a location for churches to meet. He advocated for “love feasts” to be held at Sunday Morning assembly either separate from or incorporating the Lord’s Supper as part of a common meal. He describes a memorial of Christ’s death where random members would speak or begin singing while the bread and fruit of the vine were served.
As my relatives would say, “Anyone with a lick of common sense coulda told ‘ya that wasn’t gonna work.” As a member of a congregation that fluctuated from 50-90 members and spent most of its existence around 50-to-60, I was always perplexed to hear Smith confidently assert how wonderful all these churches of 20-to-40 people would be because they had elders who taught all the classes and did the preaching. Have you ever tried to appoint bishops in a church of 20-people? The demographics become almost insurmountable. Statistically speaking, a group of 30-people will have 2.1 men with one marriage between the ages of 45-64. That doesn’t begin to address the other qualities a shepherd must display.
The “love feasts” mentioned in Radical Restoration are of dubious biblical background. If that is what Paul is referencing in I Corinthians 11, you may have noticed, he is less than pleased and tells them to eat in their homes. Add the unregulated nature of what Smith is proposing and you will quickly understand why the apostle wrote what he did in chapter 14, verses 28-35.
Don’t get me wrong, much of what Smith writes is a needed critique of traditional forms replacing what should be vigorous, Spirit filled worship and work of a living church. Frankly at some of his points we would heartily concur. Smith criticizes worship teams and youth ministers. They are unknown to the Scriptures and unseen within any church that expects a book, chapter, and verse for any practice.
On page 257 of his book, Mr. Smith admits, “I forget that I exist in an ivory tower.” His reference is to academic life where he has, “the luxury of thinking aloud.” How many churches were and will be damaged, not by what he thought, but by what LaGard Smith wrote? Radical Restoration is a useful record of an academic’s observations comparing churches of the 1990’s, to a utopian vision of a first century church as he hoped it had been and planned to restore.
F. LaGard Smith is a likeable, thoughtful man. I am sure a conversation with him would be pleasant. Part of my admiration for him grows from his honesty. I am sure it takes some humility on his part to say the following, “I don’t practice the house-church model at this point in my life. I’m with a traditional ‘church of Christ’ church, doing things in mostly traditional ways.”
Oh, I’m tempted to make a pointed response. Let me just say. If you are considering making radical changes to the congregation with which you worship based on a book written by an uninspired man, “Aim for restoration, comfort one another, agree with one another, live in peace;”-II Corinthians 13:11. You will find Jesus waiting there with a book that has passed the test of time.
Good thoughts Jason. I totally agree with you. LaGard needs to write a follow up book titled “Radical Restoration doesn’t work in our culture”. He writes good weekly thought provoking and timely articles on his FB page and his other books are well written. “Who is My Brother” is a great study.
Thanks Phil! I was watching the interview and when I heard him say, “I have a confession to make.” my brain almost exploded. At least good on him for being humble enough to say it.