God's Forgetful Pilgrims: Recalling the Church to Its Reason for Being

I am pleasantly surprised with this little book. It is too bad that Eerdmans did not do a better job with the format and packaging of this book. Griffith's conviction is that the evangelical church is more of a "ragged Cinderella" than the Bride that Christ calls the church to be. He states that the problem stems from a tendency to interpret some Biblical texts personal as opposed to corporately (for the church). He does not deny the personal aspect of salvation, but calls the church to be accountable to the Word of God and the community of believers. Griffiths believes that without an understanding of the corporate side to salvation, people can be prone to despair and bickering in the church. He teaches that Christ calls Christians to live lives investing in the health of the corporate live that Christ call the church to be. He does not complain but encourages and teaches the church to be the beautiful bride that Christ sees her to be. He is insightful as a linguist and missionary. He comes from a teaching background. At the time Griffiths was the general director of the Overseas Missionary Fellowship this show up in his examples of the practice of church and ministry in Asia. Enjoyable to read, insightful biblical text, and thoughtful.