The Model Church is the name the "Philelathians" have adopted for their Sabbath afternoon demonstration of the proper procedure in the ideal church service. The upper division students in theology at Pacific Union College are members of the Philelathian organization, and the Model Church is the laboratory in which they see the theory. of the classroom demonstrated.
Every phase of the church worship is illustrated at one time or another. Each service usually emphasizes some particular point that has been studied in the classroom. This gives the student the opportunity to carry out in practice what he is learning from his textbook and collateral reading in the library. The Model Church meets each Sabbath afternoon at four in McKibbin Hall and is now one of the best-attended services of the week.
Each week there are two sermons. This multiplies the opportunity for expression on the part of the students, and it also teaches the young men to form the habit of brevity. It is amazing how much can be packed into fifteen minutes when the material is organized and the message fully digested. Two sermons offer the student congregation a wider range of observation for analysis following the service. They provide variety for the listeners and save the service from becoming dull or uninteresting.
Since it is our purpose to train young men and women for every kind of Christian service, the Model Church demonstrates the pastoral sermon, the revival sermon, the evangelistic sermon, an the junior sermon. The most difficult part of the pastoral sermon for the student to master is the climax. It is an art that requires careful thought and much practice, but when once achieved it gives the sermon power to move the will Godward when decisions are made. When the sermon lacks climax, the listeners leave the service without conviction and return to their homes unchanged and often unready for the conflict of the coming week. The sermon must solve some problem for the congregation. If it fails in this, the minister has failed in his weekly task, and the church suffers defeat at the hands of the enemy.
In the evangelistic sermon the student must master the skill of appeal in addition to the climax of his sermon. This, too, is very difficult to learn. Many a minister preaches a sharp sermon, but he fails in his appeal. To become at home in the appeal, and give the congregation the feeling that they are in the hands of a great man of God who is pouring out his soul with abundant power over the hearts of his congregation, is the most important factor in the evangelistic service. The student must have an opportunity to express himself over and over again before he can make much of an impression upon a public audience. The Model Church offers him this opportunity.
The most popular service sponsored by the Philelathians is the junior sermon hour. Perhaps it is because it is so very real. The juniors are there to listen, and they never miss their hour if they can help it. The parents come with them, but the ushers have a special bank of seats in the front for the juniors, and they are honored on these special occasions when the junior sermons are demonstrated. To them it is not a demonstration, but a high moment in their experience. They are always dismissed before the sermons are analyzed.
The central truth about the junior sermon is the important factor. The student is taught to interpret the Christian life for the junior in terms and symbols that are intelligible to his level of thinking. To guide the junior in his religious life, one must know his nature. He is a most important person in the church, and when the pastor knows how to save his juniors, he will always have an active, progressive, growing congregation.
At the close of each service the congregation leaves the auditorium, and the Philelathians reassemble for an analysis and discussion of the program.
