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.
We need high agency missionaries again.
Boniface: Bold in the Face of False Religion
Consider Boniface, the missionary to the Germanic tribes in the eighth century. The people worshiped Donar (Thor) and revered a massive oak tree known as Donar’s Oak, believed to be sacred and protected by their god. Boniface took an ax and cut it down.
The crowd expected judgment to fall, believing the god of thunder would strike him dead. But when nothing happened, their hearts were pierced, and repentance followed. When the oak fell, so did the illusion of Thor’s power. Boniface then used the wood to build a church dedicated to Christ.
Of course, Boniface’s story does not map neatly onto every modern missions context. It certainly should not be treated as a simplistic strategy for all cross-cultural ministry. Missions requires wisdom, patience, and careful discernment. But one thing stands out clearly: Boniface did not fear false gods, nor their worshipers. He did not merely speak against idolatry; he also acted in a way that exposed it, and his Phineas-like zeal created space for the gospel to flourish.
We need missionaries who are willing to act today in the face of deeply rooted false religion—not recklessly, nor arrogantly, but courageously.
A Missionary With an Activist’s Heart
William Carey offers one such example. Carey went to India determined to preach Christ and translate Scripture. He labored for years with little visible fruit. At the same time, he worked persistently to see the practice of sati—the burning of widows on their husbands’ funeral pyres—abolished.
Carey understood that the gospel addresses eternal salvation and reshapes cultures characterized by false worship. His preaching and his public advocacy flowed from the same theological convictions. He did not only proclaim the truth but pressed that truth into real situations.
High agency missionaries are not content to diagnose spiritual darkness; they step into it with confidence that Christ has all authority both in heaven and on earth (Matthew 28:18).
A Call for Our Time
The global mission field today presents enormous challenges. Secularism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, tribal religions, and new forms of expressive individualism all claim allegiance. In many places, government restrictions limit what missionaries can do openly. Cultural pressure can be intense. And these environments, while requiring careful preparation and deep theological grounding, also require the underrated virtue of courage.
We need missionaries who will build and fight—who will preach Christ clearly, plant healthy churches, disciple deeply, and confront error when necessary. We need workers who will endure opposition and remain steady when compromise seems easier.
This cannot happen without the right missionary training. For those sensing a call to serve, investing in intentional preparation is not a delay to the mission but a vital component of the mission itself. That’s why ABWE’s missionary training is designed to form workers who can endure, lead, and plant healthy churches for the long haul.
We should pray that God would raise up such men and women. In particular, the missionary task needs men who will serve as preachers or pastors and lead church-planting missionaries, helping establish strong, doctrinally sound churches. And we need women whose strength, wisdom, and endurance point others to Christ and sustain the work in indispensable, though often unseen, ways.
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.
