Over 400 copies of the book were sold at the event. Several people purchased multiple copies for group study and to give as graduation and Father's Day gifts. JP stressed the importance of not merely reading Kingdom Triangle, but actually studying it, arguing over its ideas, and strategically finding ways and means to implement its ideas into our individual lives and churches. The end-of-chapter study questions aid in this endeavor.
Kingdom Triangle is not just a manifesto to the church, but it reveals the sort of values and priorities that will occupy JP Moreland for the rest of his life. For example, he intends to spend the rest of his life calling the church to "recover her confidence that she is in possession of spiritual and ethical knowledge about reality." He stressed that we should read scripture and study theology because it actually gives us knowledge about reality and not merely the means to form privately held true beliefs. Moreland also intends to spend the rest of his life encouraging us to pay attention to the formation of our heart in cooperation with the Spirit's work "so that we don't become people who are content to live in our heads" while our souls and relationships remain unformed or even malformed. Finally, yet importantly for JP, "restoring the Spirit's power" to our individual lives and our gathering as the church is absolutely essential if we are to meaningfully live in the fullness of God's Kingdom.
"Each year, I ask myself this question: How much of my life and ministry last year required the existence of the Christian God to explain it? How much would have happened if God did not exist? Here's the point: Life in the Kingdom - corporately in our churches and individually - is a supernatural collaborating with God in which we both matter. I matter because God wants to use me and you. But I should also expect and look for where the Kingdom is breaking out around and in my life and I should expect that the effects produced by my life and efforts should not be explainable solely by my talent."
The evening ended with a brief time for Q&A and a book signing. But as people were leaving the event, some people were receiving healing prayer and encouragement from some of JP's closest friends who fellowship at his home church, the Anaheim Vineyard. In one sense, offering opportunity to receive prayer at a "book release" event is unconventional. But then again, JP's Kingdom Triangle is not a conventional book about the "cultural crisis" or the solution to that crisis. Giving people opportunity to be encouraged in prayer complimented the heart of the event, which was about casting a vision of the Kingdom that includes a confident expectation of God to "show-up and demonstrate his power and presence in our midst."
The 5/29 event was hosted by the Christian Apologetics Program at Biola University. JP acknowledged that they are a first-rank source for maturing and being equipped as a disciple in the Kingdom. They also have the largest collection of JP Moreland audio. For a listing of their audio collection, contact audio.archives@biola.edu.
