Rooted vs. Mobile

I've been thinking about "rootedness" lately. It is somewhat hard for me to conceive of a time when the average person would be born, live, and die all in the same town/village/city. Kristy and I have now lived in three different STATES in the first 8 years of our marriage.

We've lately experienced the great advantages of being closer to family (praise God!). All the grandparents have either come to visit or have taken Stephen for the weekend, which has been great for everyone.

Of course, it's fun and important to do things just as a family. Two weekends ago we went to the Greening Up the Mountain festival in Sylva. That was quite fun! Stephen (and we) enjoyed the music and square dancing. I think we'll do the pony ride next year when he's a bit older. And of course we had to get funnel cake. But this is back to rootedness. I remember growing up in Kingsport and ALWAYS going to the 4th of July parade and the routine we would follow in doing so.

That consistency seems very difficult to achieve in our mobile culture. I heard a statistic that 1/3 of all Americans move each calendar year (warning: 56.3% of all statistics are made up). How do you build and maintain friendships when friends are always leaving and new people are always moving in? I think that's going to be a struggle for the Church, which historically has existed in very rooted, connected, non-mobile communities. How to encourage fellowship? How to make sure people don't "slip through the cracks?" How to serve each other in times of trouble when people don't know each other very well?

I certainly won't call being mobile a sin, but I think it has major disadvantages. And I'm speaking from experience.