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The Certificate track answers the multiple choice. The Associate adds the fill-in-the-blank questions; M.Div. and Th.M. add those and the short-answer questions. 90% of each part is required to pass.
I. Ten Characteristics of True Worship
Having defined worship, we now ask what true worship looks like. Worship can be done badly or well, falsely or truly, and Scripture gives us marks to test it by. Consider ten characteristics, each with an opposite that warns us when worship has gone wrong.
First, worship is God-centered. Isaiah 6:1 says, "I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up." The whole vision is fixed on God. The opposite is man-centered worship, where the focus quietly slides from God to ourselves, to our preferences, our feelings, our entertainment. Second, worship is reverent. There is a sense of awe before the holy God. The old English word "awful" once meant full of awe. The opposite is worship that is common, coarse, or profane, treating God as though He were just like us. Third, worship is corporate. It is the worship of the gathered body. Hebrews 10:25 commands us not to forsake "the assembling of ourselves together," and where two or three gather in His name, He is present. The opposite is the privatized faith that tries to meet God only at the lake or on the golf course.
II. Humble, Spiritual, Free, and Joyous
Fourth, worship is humble. We cannot worship God with pride. At the burning bush God told Moses to remove his sandals, for the ground was holy. Isaiah, seeing the Lord, cried "Woe is me!" The proud Pharisee, by contrast, thanked God that he was not like other men, and went home unjustified. You cannot exalt God and self at the same moment. Fifth, worship is spiritual. Jesus said we must worship in spirit and in truth (John 4:24). True worship is guided by the Spirit of God; the opposite is fleshly worship, and it is entirely possible to pray and even preach in the flesh rather than in the Spirit.
Sixth, worship is free. It must be planned, but it must always leave room for the movement of the Spirit. John 3:8 says the wind blows wherever it pleases. The opposite is rigid inflexibility that quenches the Spirit. I have been in services where the invitation went on for an hour and a half because the Spirit was moving, and no one dared cut it short. Seventh, worship is joyous. It is entirely possible to be consecrated and happy at the same time. D. L. Moody said he once walked into a church so cold you could have skated down the center aisle. Psalm 100:2 says, "Serve the Lord with gladness." The remaining characteristics, that worship is sincere, truthful, and orderly, all flow from these. Test your worship by these marks.
III. Why Worship Matters: The Human Need
Why does worship matter so much? The first reason is that worship satisfies a deep-seated human need. Douglas Horton observed that man becomes a living soul and wants to worship. There is something instinctive in us that reaches out to worship something. That instinct can be diverted to idols, to money, to fame, to self, but it cannot be eliminated. Even the most hardened skeptic worships something. The soul was made for worship, and it is restless until it worships the God who made it.
The second reason is that worship builds fellowship. Horton said the entire task of the church is to extend into all of life the relationships already present in worship. We were made for fellowship, both with God and with one another. There is a practical pastoral truth here: unless a new person forms a real relationship with two or three people in his first months, he will not stay in the church. Worship is where those bonds are born.
IV. Why Worship Matters: It Pleases and Is Commanded by God
The third reason worship matters is that it pleases God. God desires our fellowship the way a parent desires the company of a child. He is not indifferent to whether we come to Him; He delights in it. And the fourth reason is the simplest and the weightiest: worship is commanded. The greatest commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind. "Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy" is one of the Ten Commandments, not one of ten suggestions.
So worship is not an optional add-on to the Christian life. It answers the deepest need of the human soul, it builds the fellowship of the body, it pleases the God who made us, and it is commanded by Him. A church that takes worship lightly has misunderstood the most basic reason it exists.
Unit 2 Final Exam
Certificate track: the 20 multiple-choice questions. Associate: multiple choice and the 10 fill-in-the-blank questions. M.Div. and Th.M.: multiple choice, fill-ins and the 10 short-answer questions. 90% of each part is required to pass. If you do not pass, the exam waits a short time before you can try again.
Multiple Choice — 20 Questions
Short Answer — 10 Questions
M.Div. and Th.M.: all five assigned readings are part of the course. Their separate exam is required after activation; see its page for the current rule. Honors remains optional and does not replace the exam.
Open Course Readings →