“This is Us!”
Short story by Sean Durbin, a brother in the Underground Church Network here in Chicago:
For those of us city dwellers we know what it is like to travel with others on public transportation. It can be stressful especially if the group reaches more than a few. In an effort to keep the group together a natural leader arises, and out of a deep concern to keep the group together and safe, you’ll hear “This is us!” A proclamation that lets all in the common group know that this subway car is ours for the taking, and will eventually lead us to our common destination. Interestingly enough this phrase came up again and again on a recent trip to New York City. Â Since we were living in Brooklyn we commuted to Manhattan daily by subway. Â I found this phrase useful again and again, “This is us!” You’d hear when our train came, after we’ve been waiting possibly seeing 2-3 trains pass us before ours arrived.
One morning that week a friend of mine named Matan from Israel was rushing me to prepare myself for the day. As I brushed my teeth and my friend Dan fixed his hair, we heard Matan yell from the room, “This is us!”. Dan and I look at each other and turn our heads. Again we hear Matan proclaiming, “This is us!” I almost didn’t have the heart to ask Matan, “Matan, what did you say?” Matan got a sheepish look on his face. He explained, “Everytime our group is ready to move, to get on a subway, someone proclaims, ‘This is us!’ Does it not mean, ‘Let’s go’? Since his English far exceeded my Russian, or Hebrew I gave him as much grace as I could find. But after thinking about it, it must of made great sense to him to think that. Matan wanted to move us to mission together together. He was done with our passive hygienic care. So for that we made in grammatically correct the rest of the week to proclaim, “This is us!” When others in the group needed to be told, “Let us Go!”
Thanks for writing Sean.
As I (Mark) reflect on Sean’s story – and I remember times when I too have blurted out “This is us!” on the train approaching our stop, it strikes me what an interesting “reveal” that statement is for us as missional followers of Jesus.
Think about what that statement is doing. Â When someone on a crowded train approaching a stop leans toward his pack of friends and says, “This is us,” he is telling them that we are about to embark on a journey together. Â This journey is part of what defines “us” from “them” (the rest in the train car). Â It prepares and rallies the group to go. It says ‘This is who we are, we are go-ers.’
Our identity as missional followers of Jesus is discovered “on the way” – we learn who we are by who we are traveling with, that our identity is wrapped up in our mission – and our community is those with whom we exit the train and begin our walk.  Sociologists call this communitas – and it will completely change any insular, stagnant back-biting community into a vibrant, creative, and dynamic family on the move.  When Jesus said, “(As you are going) into all the world, make disciples…” – he was saying in essence…
…”This is us!”
doloris are discussing. 
I always want to hear more on the possible relationship between the individual and her church as far as mission is concerned. Do all churches have as specific missions as all individuals do? Or is it much more complex – for example, a person may not feel pulled towards the world in a particular way, but she meets a church who does and so joins in that direction cheerfully. Or vice versa. Or a church that meets mostly to be fascinated by the varieties of ways each other is living. Or a church who does not organizationally establish a mission, but finds their individual directions quite kin (leading to encouragement, but also presumption). As multifarious as the world exists, I hope churches relate in appropriately various ways. (i also wonder if we can see such differences in structure and mission in the early churches – how does the context of mission effect our understanding of the letters written to them?)
-jes