Mobility

Mobility is a way of life in all modern societies, especially in newer ones like the United States, Canada and Australia. In these countries approximately one person in five moves each year. Some people, and persons in some parts of these countries, are more mobile than others. For example, young couples without children in southern California move on average every two or three years, while singles in Silicon Valley, south of San Francisco, move on average more than once a year, often around the valley itself. But overall during a five-year period between 50 percent and 60 percent of the population moves, and over a decade this rises to around 75 percent.

People move not only within countries but also between them. Indeed, in the twentieth century we have probably witnessed the largest ever movements of people from one country to another. In some cases, such as the northward drift to the United States from various parts of Latin America, this is motivated by the dream of a better life. Within a generation Hispanics will number more than 50 percent of the population of cities like Los Angeles. In other cases people are driven from their own country or feel compelled to leave it because of persecution, oppression or even genocide. On a different level altogether, travel and tourism have become big business, resulting in increasing numbers of people moving intensively and extensively around various parts of the world as well as around their own countries.

Though they reside in one location, most people frequently move around cities or regions over long distances on a daily or weekly basis. Some work is mainly mobile. This is true for drivers, salespeople, journalists, deliverers, realtors, seasonal workers, cowboys, sailors and pilots. In some cases previously fixed workplaces are becoming mobile, especially as cars develop into complete mobile office systems with cellular phone, fax machine, word processor, printer and even perhaps two-way radio. Employees are also moving more frequently from workplace to workplace or from one line of work to another. Virtually gone are the days of the lifetime company employee: the average worker now holds down five or more different types of job during the course of a lifetime.

Overall it has been estimated that people today cover around thirty to thirty-five times the distance traveled by their grandparents. These high rates and varied kinds of mobility raise a number of important questions. Why are we so mobile? What are the personal and communal effects of mobility? Where is mobility talked about in the Bible, and does this throw light on our culturally different situation? When and where should we move or not move, and what criteria should govern our decision? How can we better manage the moves we feel are right to make?

Why Are We So Mobile?

The roots of mobility in newer Western societies lie primarily in their mobile beginnings. These countries were entered by people who chose or were forced to move to them. Once there, many immigrants did not stay in one place but continued to move across the countryside. It was Frederick Jackson Turner who, toward the end of the last century, first argued that the experience of successive frontiers in the United States significantly shaped individual character and democratic institutions in America. The frontier mentality was characterized by repeated hopes for improvement, by struggles with primitive conditions, by an emphasis on expediency and acquisitiveness, by restless energy and optimism, by individualism and materialism. Though the outcome was somewhat different in Canada and Australia, where the wilderness was not won but itself won against the intruders, the expansion of people into open spaces and their movement between them still had a marked effect.

Somewhere in the midst of this ongoing mobility a subtle but decisive change took place, particularly in the United States. The immigrants’ belief that their hopes would be fulfilled if they could find the right place in which to settle down turned into the belief that the very process of continually moving was itself the way to experience fulfillment. In his influential book Wendell Berry calls this the unsettling, rather than the settling, of America, for people tended to exploit, rather than care for, the land on which they settled and, when they realized this, left it behind for greener pastures. This exploiting and leaving was the beginning of the disposable society, which eventually transformed itself into the phenomenon of the disposable individual, one who successively leaves a worn-out or failed version of the self behind and by moving on again and again hopes to remake or reinvent his or her selfhood.

What Are the Effects of Mobility?

Mobility can have a number of positive effects. These include freedom from persecution or a restrictive context and the opportunity to begin again especially after making a mistake, to move to a healthier or simply more pleasant environment, to get closer to family or leave behind an abusive family situation, to increase educational or cultural possibilities, to find a better job and commute fewer hours, to develop a lifestyle more consistent with basic values or last, but not least for many Christians, to fulfill a sense of vocation or mission.

There can also be negative effects. Among these are the loss of a sense of roots and place, leaving behind extended family and friends, difficulties in readjusting and higher levels of restlessness, a diminished desire and capacity to become committed to people and contexts the more one moves, and a tendency toward greater relativism in beliefs and values. Though few people are aware of it, the increase in mobility during the last century has also increased the degree of bureaucratic control and regulation of people moving or traveling.

A significant effect of mobility that people do not take sufficiently into account is an increase in levels of personal stress. The well-known Social Readjustment Rating Scale helps people determine how much stress they are likely to encounter as they undergo various experiences. As well as a change in residence (20 points), a move generally involves a change in schools (26 points), a different line of work (36 points) or work responsibilities (29 points), a spouse’s having to stop or begin work (26 points), and a change in church (19 points) and social activities (18 points). Sometimes a move involves increased marital arguments (35 points), separation from a member of the immediate family (29 points), or a change in living conditions (25 points) or in recreational habits (19 points). When we add the energy expended on adapting to a different climate and to unfamiliar locations, these points often add up to a fair degree of stress: once they reach 300, there is a 90 percent probability of people’s experiencing acute insomnia and developing an illness.

Finally, mobility involves a change in churches, which not only involves an additional 20 or more points on the scale but deprives the congregation left behind of the ongoing presence and contribution of those who are moving. One of the most serious unrecognized factors militating against developing community in local churches today is that roughly 20 percent of their members are turning over each year, among them some of their most committed people. How do you build deep community in such a transient setting?

What Does the Bible Say About Mobility?

The Bible presents us with a complex picture of people moving around and staying put. God’s question to the heavenly court, “Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?” (Isaiah 6:8), is probably the passage that first comes to mind in thinking about mobility. Note, however, that this sending and going dealt mostly with a vocational rather than geographical change for the prophet. But other significant figures within the nation of Israel and among the early Christians—from Abraham through Jonah to Paul—were highly mobile. This was largely true of Jesus himself. The lives of others, such as Moses and Peter, were a blend of mobility and stability. In contrast, others—like Solomon and James—had a largely settled existence. The nation of Israel itself went through long stretches of stability in Egypt and Canaan, intermixed with wanderings through the desert and a time of exile. In a deeper sense, as the writer to the Hebrews puts it, all these people were “longing for a better country—a heavenly one” (Hebrews 11:16), but this is not to say that their earthly existence was made up of continual pilgrimage.

Most of the aforementioned biblical figures, even the chosen people as a whole, were called to a rather unusual work and therefore should not be treated as exact role models for all Christians with respect to mobility. But the criteria by which they decided to stay put or move on, how short or long a time to remain or travel around, and how to cope with an unsettled life when it came their way have something to say.

Paul is an interesting example with regard to mobility, for we have more evidence concerning his movements than we have for most biblical figures. The apostle worked out the geographical boundaries within which he would move around and beyond which he would not go (Romans 15:19-20). Moreover, Paul did not equate the need or opportunity to do something with the call of God to attend to it—sometimes another factor also had to be present (2 Cor. 2:12-13). He viewed his work as completed in a particular area once he had established it in an influential center from which it would spread elsewhere of its own accord (Romans 15:21-23). Except when Paul was forced out, he did not leave a place until he had completed what he had set out to do and had done so in a quality way (1 Cor. 3:10-15). Furthermore, the apostle limited how much he attempted within these boundaries to the divine gifts and instructions he had been given, allowing others to look after the rest (Romans 12:3, 6). For all the difficulties and anxieties Paul encountered (2 Cor. 11:26-27), overall he learned to be content in whatever circumstances he found himself (Phil. 4:11-13).

What Are Our Criteria for Moving?

Building on the criteria found in Scripture, and assuming there is no overriding decisive argument for moving such as the radical state of a person’s health or absolute lack of work, we ask what concrete guidance can be given to those contemplating a move.

First, make a list of all the stakeholders in the move, that is, all those affected by the decision. This would normally include family and relatives but should also cover friends, fellow churchgoers, colleagues and neighbors, as well as other people and institutions who have been part of your life and who will lose something by your leaving. This same list will help you assess how much you will lose through being physically separated from these people. Too often a decision to move is based purely on whether it will improve a person’s job prospects or provide higher pay or whether relocation will be to a “nicer” area with a better climate. I know of more than one couple who decided that what they and their children were gaining from and giving to their church at the time was more important than a higher salary and status. In all this it is important to count the hidden costs and gains, internal as well as external, that are often overlooked in making a decision.

Second, if you do not have it already, develop a clear sense of your own values and priorities. What is most important to you in your life, and what priority would you give to those items at the top of the list? What would you most miss if all of a sudden you were deprived of it? What stage of life are you in or moving into with respect to family, work, Christian ministry and spiritual growth? If you have a spouse, what does he or she most require over the next few years, and what can you most give to or gain from the one closest to you? All too often decisions about staying or moving are made without springing from or taking into account the basic values around which our lives as Christians should revolve.

Third, work out where the authority lies for making the decision. Does it lie, as is sometimes the case, with the person who will be most advantaged by the move, often the male in the household? When a couple and/or children are involved, does the decision depend on both spouses’ coming to agreement or on the whole family, at least including children of a reasonable age, reaching a decision? When people belong to a small group, how much involvement should this primary Christian community have through asking questions, contributing wisdom, engaging in prayer and seeking a word of knowledge from God? What role do nearby friends have in this process, since they will be seriously affected by the outcome? In other words, how is God’s will best discerned in such a corporate situation as opposed to a matter that is purely individual or familial? Should a discernment group made of several confidants and key stakeholders be called together to help work through the issue?

Further Considerations

Two clarifications are in order. Sometimes the answer to the question about moving is neither yes nor no but not yet. Not all moves have to be made immediately: often a delay enables some factors that are hindering to dissolve or some of the reservations people are experiencing to dissipate. So waiting, which most people find difficult, is a genuine option. Also, deciding to stay rather than move is just as much a choice in its own right. Occasionally such a process unearths stronger grounds for staying than those considering a move had beforehand. Given the rate of mobility today, and its detrimental effects on community generally, the question that God may be asking of many people is not “Who will go for us?” but rather “Who will stay for us?” How else will community be revitalized and deepened in our churches, neighborhoods and cities today?

To whatever extent we are or are not mobile, most of us would benefit from knowing how to handle mobility better. It is helpful here to begin by identifying those aspects of the move that are most threatening or that promise the quickest rewards. Also, work out with family members concrete strategies for minimizing problems and maximizing satisfactions. Consider whatever plans you make as a commitment to those who find the move most difficult and put them into practice as soon as possible. Involve any who are willing to help in the move so that the burden is shared more widely. Try to find one person in your new location who can answer questions you might have, act as an interpreter of local customs and direct you to any services that may be helpful. Give yourselves a buffer zone of at least one or two weeks to prepare for the move and to settle in and recover from it.

» See also: Calling/Vocation

» See also: Guidance

» See also: Traveling

References and Resources

W. Berry, The Unsettling of America: Culture and Agriculture (New York: Avon, 1972); M. B. Emerson and C. Cameron, Moving: The Challenge of Change (Nashville: Abingdon, 1988); J. McInnes, The New Pilgrims (Sydney: Sutherland, 1980); J. Naisbitt, Megatrends (New York: Warner, 1982); W. Stegner, The American West as Living Space (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1987); F. J. Turner, The Frontier in American History (New York: Henry Holt, 1920); J. A. Walter, The Human Home: The Myth of the Sacred Environment (Tring, Herts, U.K.: Lion, 1982).

—Robert Banks