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One of the great encouragements found throughout this book is the emphasis on God’s divine preference for human agency. While humans are not always the ideal due to their own straying, God seems committed to demonstrating his divine leadership through the stewardship of humanity. This human service reminds us that God’s servants “do not exist for themselves but as agents for someone else’s purpose� (Laniak, 129).

When thinking about pastoral ministry, this concept of human agency in God’s purposes is significant. As we think about the Great Shepherd’s desire to care for his flock, we can be encouraged by his calling to us as undershepherds. This is not a light calling, but one that it is at the heart of his way of leadership. This delegation brings a sense of delightful duty but also a model for us to follow as we seek to entrust ministry into the hands of faithful men and women beyond ourselves.[/b]

The theme of divine preference for human agency was deeply humbling. The fact that God prefers and even insists on human agency to express his divine rule places a mantle of responsibility on every human being, and especially on those called to be shepherd-leaders. This is why James 3:1 says “Not many of you should become teachers.� Yet, though God knows we will fail and misrepresent his shepherd-leadership, he continues to call and work through human agents. And ultimate divine rule is expressed not only in the rightly exercised leadership of his human agent, but in the redemption and transformation of that one life into a more and more accurate representation of the Chief Shepherd.