6. Mobility: Gift or Liability? (MICN Missiology Series by Andrew Lupton)
If global mobility is a pressure cooker for the family system, is that the only liability we should be concerned about? What other baggage is packed into the experience of mobility? Are there any benefits or opportunities to a lifestyle of mobility? These are questions we’re bound to ask and answer as we serve our people group (the globally mobile) and invite partners to invest in the international church.
Generally speaking, the average duration of an expat assignment has decreased.1 Expats typically stay on one assignment for 12-36 months.2 That matches the trend at my church, UCB. Families normally enter our community in August or September, stay an average of two years, and then move to another country in June. I feel privileged if an expat remains in our community for three or more years. Typically, the globally mobile are temporary wherever they go.
A life of global mobility carries with it valuable skills for shaping our globalizing world. The mantra our NEXT ministry group repeats to missionary parents reflects that potential. “Your most valuable contribution to the kingdom of God is not the church that you plant, the school or orphanage you start, but the children that you raise.” While this sentiment rings true for parents raising their children in a monocultural setting, children growing up within global mobility are uniquely gifted to exercise God-honouring dominion in God’s world. Here’s how.
Both globally mobile parents and their children (but especially their children) are highly flexible and adaptive. Entering a room, sniffing out norms and expectations, and flexing to those norms and expectations becomes an intuitive way of life for the globally mobile. What a gift! But rootlessness and restlessness are the other side of the coin threatening to undermine the benefits of flexibility and adaptability. “I came, I saw, I adapted,” may share the same breath as, “now what’s next?” What a liability!
The Association of Christian Schools International (ACSI) says that this migratory instinct might make the globally mobile victims to their mobility.3 In other words, mobility becomes less of a tool for navigating our globalizing world and more like the tail that wags the dog. In this way, rootlessness and restlessness are dehumanizing byproducts of mobility, often the result of layers of unresolved grief from mobility. Unresolved grief tends to haunt those within whom it dwells.
Think about the curse God gave to Cain in Genesis 4:12 after killing his brother. “You shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Wandering everywhere and belonging nowhere illustrates the negative side of mobility. God designed his people to rest and put down roots.4 The international church’s call to restore aspects of mobility toward that design will be discussed in future articles.
The globally mobile also develop a broader worldview than many living in monocultural contexts. ACSI describes this as a three-dimensional worldview that shapes the head and the heart for global good. The globally mobile have access to status, influencers, and often proficiency in multiple languages. Meanwhile, they have a front row seat to real poverty, hunger, war, and injustice. For some living in monocultural contexts, these sad realities may only be observed through a screen. But when such desperation lives next door, it tends to add texture to the minds and hearts of the globally mobile, especially in our children.
These are the ingredients to a dynamic and global mindset. Many international business people and general managers pass through our church community. One general manager who remains a close friend explained the appeal for someone like him. His wife and children were more adaptable and adept at the globally mobile lifestyle than he was. He was and is rather black and white in his mindset. But he was eagerly climbing the corporate ladder. I asked, “Why would you choose to move your family all over the world when you could get a similar paying job within the comforts and familiarity of your own country and culture?” His answer struck me. Anyone who aspires to be at the top of a Fortune 500 company must at some point in their career work as an expat. Why? Because businesses crave people who possess a dynamic, global mindset. These are the people with the skills to help companies adapt and thrive within a rapidly changing environment. What a gift!
But another nasty side effect of such dynamism and global-mindedness is arrogance. Arrogance for the globally mobile most often manifests as a perceived superiority over monocultural people who are incorrectly viewed as simple and narrow-minded. “We’ve been there and we’ve seen that. What could someone who hasn’t lived away from their hometown have to teach me about the world?” Thus, international church is called to implore God’s Spirit to replace arrogance with humility that generates empathy and God-honouring curiosity for strangers regardless of the dynamics (or lack thereof) of their worldview.
Experiencing the heights and depths of humanity make the globally mobile (and especially their children) prototypes of 21st century citizens. But they must not be arrogant as they lead us forward.5 The international church has the enormous privilege of developing and discipling the grace-infused culture brokers the world desperately needs as it rapidly changes.
Tune in next week as begin to unpack the challenges of serving the globally mobile.
Andrew Lupton
1 https://www.figt.org/relocation_trends/
2 https://www.whrg.com/blog/the-best-types-of-expat-assignments-for-your-mobility-program/
3 Bowers, Joyce M. (Association of Christian Schools International), Raising Resilient MKs: Resources for Caregivers, Parents, and Teachers, pp. 44-49.
4 https://world.wng.org/content/the_curse_of_cain
5 Bowers, pp. 47-49.
