WHO CALLED THE LEADERSHIP TO REFRESHMENT?
by Abraham Benjamin
Freemasonry has been without true leadership since 1958 when our membership
hit an all time high of 4.2 Million Masons. Today, 1996, there are less than 2
million Masons in the United States. Why did the Craft allow its leadership to
be called off from Labor and onto Refreshment? Many Masons believe that their
Grand Lodge is going to develop some fabulous program that will save their
Lodges. Other Masons believe that our current membership problem is a myth. They
believe that the membership drops really haven't occurred. Also, that only 10%
of our membership is active is propaganda and that Freemasonry will regain the
prestige it enjoyed in the late 1940's and 1950's.
It is difficult to convince these Masons that there is a definite problem in
the Craft when the Grand Lodge officers visit Lodges and tell the Brethren that
everything is fine. They tell us the Fraternity is stronger than ever! The
publications off Freemasonry only print articles that tell the Craft that
Freemasonry is terrific, doing well, and can do even better. Freemasonry is the
greatest Fraternity ever created by God and Man but it is suffering; membership
wise, community image wise, and age wise.
Our communities where our Lodges reside have a negative image of Freemasonry.
The cover of the October 6, 1956 issue of LIFE MAGAZINE had the 49 Grand Masters
of the United States on the cover page plus a 12 page color article about
Freemasonry. An unbelievably positive article describing the goodness and
charities of the Craft. Here in 1996 the hottest selling pieces of Masonic
literature are: "A New World Order", "The Deadly Deception", and "Duncan's
Ritual of Freemasonry." All of these publications give away the secrets of
Freemasonry in the most negative ways.
If you look at the publications today by Freemasonry, books on Freemasonry,
MSA Short talks, the Northern Light (by the Northern Masonic jurisdiction of the
Scottish Rite) you will find positive and rosy articles about how terrific and
fine the Fraternity is. There will be the occasional article that talks about
how we could make this Fraternity even better. It is time for the leadership of
Freemasonry to come off refreshment and back onto labor and start doing what
leaders do!
A top mind in the field of Leadership, Warren Bennis, author of several
leadership books and a professor of leadership and management, indicates that
the first thing a leader must do is define the current context. Leaders define
the current reality of the organization. I like to add to his definition not
only defining the current reality but also accepting it.
This facade (of not accepting the reality of our situation) is seen all over
the Fraternity. It is time to end this facade. It is time for Freemasonry to get
"REAL" leadership in the Craft at all levels and in all Masonic organizations.
"Real" leadership will define and accept reality. Reality is that we are losing
3% of membership in Freemasonry every year. Freemasonry will become extinct in
the United States within the next 20 years unless YOU DO SOMETHING! Let me
repeat that, unless YOU DO SOMETHING NOW! You cannot afford to wait for your
Grand Lodge to realize what is happening and develop the correct answer to the
problem. If you wait until your District Deputy comes up with some solution or
your current Worshipful Master, who is your Lodge's Manager and not its leader,
to do something then your Lodge probably will not survive very long into the
21st Century.
It is up to each of us, every Mason has this obligation, to change the
current situation of the Craft. We need leadership. So why did the leadership go
out to refreshment? This can be attributed to several reasons. The popularity of
Freemasonry in the 1950's and early 1960's dropped. Changes in society that
occurred in the 1960's, women's rights and equality, the space age, racial
equality, and others, caused men to think and look at life's obligations
differently. Freemasonry did not accommodate these changes.
In fact Freemasonry does not meet the needs and expectations of 90% of its
own membership. For if it did then we would have higher levels of attendance at
stated meetings and Lodge activities. Without leadership in place we have lost
touch with members needs and expectations from their Fraternity. The current
management of the Lodges have created programs that meet the needs of the few.
They put more ritual into the meetings to fill the open gaps that should be
filled with programs that cater to the current inactive Masons.
Back in the 1940's and 1950's Fellowship would have filled 75%+ of a Mason's
time in Lodge for a month, today is barely fills 15% of that time. You cannot
fellowship with your fellow Brethren when you sit in a stated meeting and listen
to minutes and bills and rituals. Rituals have filled the voids of the meetings.
Ritual includes the routines that we do at every stated meeting. It includes the
opening and closing of the meeting, the reading of the minutes, the reports that
are given and balloting (just to name a few). Masonic ritual for degrees and the
opening and closing of meetings should never be abolished. But we should not
allow the ritual to encompass the entire meeting time.
Some Lodges allow the Secretary to read the minutes of the last stated
meeting for over 30 minutes. A man in his 30's or 40's does not desire to sit
for 30 minutes and listen to that secretary. If he was that interested in that
meeting he would have come to the meeting or have gone to the secretary before
the meeting to review the minutes. We have treasurers who insist that every bill
be read in Lodge. Not only this month's bills but all the bills we paid last
month. They tell us where every penny of income came from, all of the sources,
one at a time. This is fine for the Mason who's only expectation of the Craft is
to sit in a meeting and feel like he belongs to something.
To a younger man the feeling of just belonging to an organization is not
enough. Younger members are looking for other things from the Fraternity. They
are looking to become leaders of the craft. They are looking for a chance to do
something for their communities through the Lodge. They are looking for a chance
to participate with their energies and resources to a worthy charitable event.
They need the opportunity to involve their families with what they are doing.
They want family activities from Freemasonry, from their Symbolic Lodges!
One of the problems with the current leadership of Freemasonry is that we
allow an individual to get into a leadership position then we let them keep that
job for life. They never give the next guy the chance. An example of this is the
Royal Order of Scotland who has had the same Grand Master for over 30 years. A
Mason entering that organization with the desire to lead and become the Grand
Master one day will quickly realize that the dream can probably never be
obtained. So these Masons with leadership skills become inactive or leave the
organization.
With the negativism of Freemasonry in our communities, community leaders will
not become Freemasons. In the 1940's and 1950's a Mason found that his boss, his
boss's boss, and the President of the company were sitting in Lodge with him and
they networked with each other. Today you do not find CEOs in Freemasonry. The
President of the United States, who is a Senior DeMolay and a State Master
councilor would not even admit publicly that he was a member of the DeMolay, a
Masonic organization. Naturally, he will not consider Masonic membership and he
grew up with a good understanding and appreciation of the values and morals of
Freemasonry. Men like John Glenn and Bob Dole do not desire to publicly admit to
being Freemasons. Freemasonry is not a positive asset to one's political career.
And that is very unfortunate since it was the tenants of Freemasonry that built
this country.
How can we fix this problem? We need to take a look at how we run our Lodges
and how we place men into the East and call them the leader. It is time to
understand and accept the fact that just because you can do the ritual, or are
willing to attend the meetings and sit in the chairs that you should be given
the reigns of leadership of the Lodge. A Mason should demonstrate leadership
skills and be trained in leadership before he can be given the chair in the
East. Perhaps it is time to have degree teams that do the rituals of the Craft
and have a leadership team who will lead the Lodge into the future. The
leadership team would go through the chairs and become the Worshipful Masters.
Strategic Planning is critical to the survival of a Lodge. A well developed
and systematic strategic plan will take a Lodge from its current state and
improve its chances for survival into the 21st Century. Without a plan Lodge
activities are not coordinated each year. Each Master cannot continue to do what
he wants without concern to the overall success of the Lodge. All incoming
Masters must work together for the common good of the Lodge. Remove your current
line of ritualists and put 8 leaders into the chairs. These men would create and
implement a plan for the future success of the Lodge. Let the ritualists run the
degrees and let the leaders run the Lodge. The leaders will create a vision of
the future of the Lodge and will strive to get there.
The Lodge's leadership, the Grand Lodge's leadership, must get out and talk
to the Brethren. The Grand Lodge officers must get out of their special room
where only the Right Worshipfuls are allowed to enter and mix with the Brethren.
Talk to them and find out what they need and expect from the Fraternity. The
Lodge officers must do the same thing. Before a stated meeting the Worshipful
Master must go out and talk with the Brethren instead of finding out what he is
doing that evening from the Secretary. Leaders would not act this way. Leaders
would be constantly talking to the membership and be make continuous
improvements to the Lodge's activities. Fellowship is our greatest product. Our
leaders must deliver that product the best they can.
It is time to put leadership in charge of the Lodge. It is time for the Past
Masters and Secretaries of the Lodge to stand aside or stand behind the new
leaders in the Lodge who will make the difference that we need. Leadership will
develop strategic plans for the future. Leadership will retain those programs
that are successful and remove those that are not. Leadership will be interested
in the good of the organization and not for their own edification.
Only YOU can make a difference in your Lodge. Your Grand Lodge cannot save
your Lodge. Each of us must want to fix the problems of Freemasonry. Each of us
must want to place leadership into the East of Lodge. That is the only way to
make it work. If your Grand Lodge develops some program that they believe will
help the Lodges but the Lodges do not have the leadership in place to implement
such programs then the programs are of no use to the Lodges.
You must also be willing to accept change. If you are part of the 10% of the
Fraternity who likes what is being done you must be willing to step aside and
allow new programs and processes to be implemented for the good of the
Fraternity. A large stumbling block to change is the current active membership.
They like what is happening and they do not want to change anything. This group
must realize that for 37 years the Craft has been doing it their way (and for
many years before 1958) and in today's world these programs and procedures don't
work anymore. Step aside and let the new blood run and improve the Lodge for the
90% of the men who are dissatisfied with the way things are and for the future
members who will be coming into the Craft during the next years.
It is time for you to go into your Lodges and look at what the Lodge does,
and ask yourself the hard questions; Why are we doing what we are doing? How can
we improve this Lodge for all of our membership? What can we do to attract the
younger man to the Lodge? How can we get leadership into the East so that we can
change and make a difference?
These are all difficult questions to answer but they must be answered and the
solutions implemented. The only person who is going to save Freemasonry is YOU!
You must want to save your Lodge for the future generations. Freemasonry is
without any doubt worth saving. So go back to your Lodge and demand that the
leadership come back to labor. Be there to help and support them. So that we all
can start getting the job done!
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