Nehemiah remembered the Lord and then picked up tools. Boniface trusted Christ and lifted an ax. Carey preached the gospel and labored for reform. Let us pray that God would raise up high agency missionaries in our generation—and let us seek to be such men and women ourselves.

In the book of Nehemiah, when Nehemiah found out what was happening in Jerusalem—that the walls were broken down and the gates burned—he prayed, quietly and earnestly. He fasted and sought the Lord for days (Nehemiah 1:4).

But Nehemiah also acted. Nehemiah approached the king and asked for permission to go rebuild. He worked with government authorities (despite their being pagan) to secure timber and protection for the journey (Nehemiah 2:4–8). He made plans. He assessed the damage. He organized the people. He called them to rebuild what had been ruined. When opposition came, he did not retreat. He told the people, “Do not be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons, your daughters, your wives, and your homes” (Nehemiah 4:14 ESV). The people built with a sword strapped to their side. They labored with trowels in one hand and stood ready to fight with the other (Nehemiah 4:17–18).

Later, Nehemiah confronted compromise inside the covenant community. When some had married outside the people of God in direct violation of the Law, he responded with fierce zeal. Scripture tells us that he rebuked them, cursed some, struck some of them, and even pulled out their hair (Nehemiah 13:25). His actions can make modern readers uncomfortable. Yet his passion flowed from a deep concern for the purity of God’s people and the honor of God’s name.

What was different about Nehemiah than many Christian leaders, missionaries, and pastors today?

Nehemiah was a man of high agency.

What Is Agency?

Agency is the instinct to take responsibility under God’s sovereignty. It is the refusal to drift. It is the willingness to move toward resolving a problem instead of merely observing it.

In the ancient world, this quality was sometimes described as thumos—a kind of spirited courage rooted in conviction. C.S. Lewis, in The Abolition of Man, warned about raising “men without chests,” people who have intellect and appetite but lack the moral formation and courage to act on what is true. In more recent language, some describe this kind of resilience as being “antifragile”—not merely surviving pressure but growing stronger through it.

However you describe it, the issue is the same: many today lack agency.

In the church, we rightly emphasize a personal relationship with God. We stress piety, prayer, quiet time, and holiness of life. Those priorities are biblical and necessary. Yet in many places our spirituality has turned inward in a way that produces hesitation rather than action. We speak often about faithfulness, but we are slow to initiate. We analyze cultural challenges at length, but we struggle to confront them directly.

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