So while Blue isn't my least favorite mindset (I have a red field trip on Wednesay), I chose to immerse myself in the full 3 hour or so church service of the LDS/Mormon church.

While a lot of Christian churches I find operate from a blue mindset, I thought LDS would have it even more in spades.

The service was structured more than most services I was used to. And they had their own 'language' around many things. In the first hour it was a typical church service environment, but had a high degree of administrative content provided by the bishop as well as the elders and sisters in attendance. The group participation almost felt green to me in it's community orientedness but it was really more blue. People stood up and were reinforcing the word, the practices and what was right. It wasn't there to showcase diversity in the community but reinforced much of what was already being said.

In the second hour of breakout was the teaching. Again there was a lot of community participation and blue mindset sharing. Everyone was VERY well spoken and could deliver with passion (a result of outreach experience possibly???). I felt a nervousness to half the people to make sure they were delivering well and saying the 'right thing'. The teacher at one point was bumbling a bit in the verse references and was mortified a bit by it. Instead of just apologizing or laughing it off, she tried harder and and harder to get it right and then very politely acknowledge her bumbling and asked for forgiveness.

In last hour, the men separated out for a priesthood experience. Again the visitors were asked to stand up and introduce. It felt very welcoming in a blue way. In a green way it would have been more about 'welcome, let me hear who you are and your uniqueness'. This welcoming felt more like 'we are glad you are here, you, who is just like one of us'.

There is a calmness to being in a blue mindset. I found I could just shutoff the brain and let people's sharing and the hymn just float it. There was nothing I HAD to do except follow along.  It was peaceful.

I found the righteous lines of sharing and demonizing other forces and the imminent second coming uncomfortable. There was a fair amount of assignment to meaning toward ISIS, etc that for me felt like projection of what they wanted to believe and making it fit in their mindset. When people presented clarification that might have shined a slightly different lift on a topic, there seemed to be a drive to unify everyone's thinking and to make it line up with what the verses were saying. The format looked like 'discussion' but it was more about unifying and reinforcing. My guiding principle of 'bring out the color' and finding and encourage people's uniqueness was severely challenged in these moments.

Another thing to note was how much subtle and not so subtle communication there was around getting more people to the church and the church events through home visits, fireside events, community events etc. There was almost a flavor of orange in this. A bit of rahrah and supportive words and tips to go out there and get it done. Not over the top, but definitely some orange around.

Overall, so glad I did it.

-tony