The branch mentality

Recently on By Common Consent, a Mormon blog, one guest blogger blogged about an economist's perspective of ward activities. He compared them to a centrally planned economy, "that is, there is very little innovation, there is very little variety, and there is a constant calculation problem that results in either over- or under-supply of almost all goods and services. In short, individual preferences are sacrificed for a collective least common denominator. The resulting activities do not allow members to align themselves based on shared interests (which would likely facilitate more bonding and fellowship), but force them together on the basis of a single—and oftentimes socially irrelevant—characteristic: membership in the ward."

He then went on to describe some of the activities, and how they often cater to the lowest common denominator, and his own experiences within a ward activities committee. Not a pretty sight. The comments are littered with the broken and shattered dreams of many a ward activity that dared to be different and ended up being abandoned by the ward family as a whole through non-attendance.

It made me wonder, because I've seen most of this to be true mostly descriptive of many church activities I've attended - except in branches.

In almost every branch that I have lived in, there is always a sense of community. I can understand that this is true simply by the rule of numbers: Dantzel and I are not considered the most active in our ward because our ward has probably by estimate 500 members and it's easy to feel lost in the crowd, whereas in branches, you have generally less than 100 people in a congregation and, as the song goes, everyone knows your name.

But I think what influences my small experience with branches being socially more adept at planning fun branch activities is the fact that they are informal.

My father is currently the Korean branch president back home, and whenever I come over for the holidays, it seems that they are always having a party where a lot of the branch comes to socialize. They announce it in church, but there's no real flyers passed out or sign up sheets sealing the pact that you're going to bring a side dish. People don't even really consider it as an official "church activity" (which it isn't), and just show up to hang out with some peeps they happen to see on Sunday.

Same thing with the branch in Blackwell, Oklahoma, where I served on my mission. The Fourth of July pancake breakfast was pretty amazing. We had Krusteaz pancakes and some milk, sang the Star Spangled Banner and the second counselor of the branch presidency read a small devotional about America which I remembered from a forward I received sometime ago. Despite the cheesiness of it, again, the issue was never forced, it was never really "official" church business. Members brought their non-member friends, but there was no talk of missionaries (even though we were there). We talked, socialized and then parted.

I've been to other Fourth of July devotionals which involved much of the same thing - and yet felt so completely out of place. What is it about branches that make ward socializing so much easier? And could we take this into practice, perhaps? I can't imagine running a 500 person ward is easy for any of the lay leadership called to do so.