Effecting Change

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

WB Darin A. Lahners

I recently found myself in a situation where I discovered several items which I felt could either be considered using terms that could be considered offensive or put Freemasonry in a bad light in a Short Talk Bulletin that my Grand Lodge was using as a recruitment tool, asking its members to direct potential candidates to listen to the Short Talk Podcast highlighting this Bulletin or to read the Short Talk Bulletin.  Instead of doing what I would normally do, which would be to write a blog post about it, I tried to work within the system.  I emailed the Brother responsible for sending out the email, pointing out what was wrong with using an almost 70-year-old short talk bulletin and how it was offensive and/or highlighting Masonic historical accomplishments that it shouldn't have been highlighting.  I urged the brother to run historical facts past the Grand Lodge Education Committee (of which I am a member..well maybe not for long after this article) in the future so that we might be able to fact-check the information in any old materials of this nature that they might want to use in the future. The reply I received was short, but I have to believe in good faith that my wise counsel might find a nest in that brother's mind and that we might be able to partner in the future.  

I don't know what reply I expected, or if I expected a reply at all.  I certainly knew that they would not send an email to explain that there were things wrong with the Short Talk Bulletin and for everyone to cease using it.  By the time I had actually emailed the brother, the Short Talk Bulletin had been in use for this purpose for a month.  So I understand that it might be a little too late to send out a retraction or disclaimer regarding the bulletin. If it costs us a member or two, so be it. As the email proudly pointed out, my jurisdiction is the 4th largest Masonic grand jurisdiction in the United States (based on membership size).  What it fails to mention is that a large percentage of this membership will be lost in the next 10 to 20 years, not only in my Grand Jurisdiction but across the United States as a whole.  If the data that WB Jon Ruark has put out is to be believed, we'll hit 0 around 2040.  

While I don't really believe that we'll hit zero, in the next 10 years, I think we will see a lot of changes.  While I often hear the constant comparison of Freemasonry going the way of the Oddfellows, as an Oddfellow as well, I think we should be pleased to compare ourselves to the Oddfellows.  They are much better positioned due to their membership requirements than Freemasonry.  I dare say that we might reach a point where the Oddfellows have more members than the Freemasons. This is because the Oddfellows have been seeing growth in both the Gen-Z and Millenial demographics.  Don't get me wrong, I have members of my lodges that are in this demographic, however, they make up a small percentage of my lodges compared to the Silent Generation, Boomers, and Gen-X'ers.  In the Oddfellows lodge, that I belong to, the Gen-Z's and Millenials make up the majority of the members. Extrapolating this out, you can do the math.  Assuming that we have similar rates of attrition, the attrition is going to impact us a whole lot more than them because we have a larger membership.  I'll now allow you to pick your chin up from the floor now.

So what can be done?  I'm glad you asked.  If you care about Freemasonry, we need to start changing how we operate from the top down and the bottom up.  In many jurisdictions, the elections are often contested with several candidates running for Grand Line Offices, yet in many more, they are not.  This is the same at the Lodge level.  We continue to shuffle leadership forward in the progressive line because they are the next in line.  We don't really ask if they are the best Mason for the job, nor do we come up with alternative candidates that might actually help break us out of our own echo chamber.   

We have to change this. We need to start identifying and electing leaders that are against the status quo and that are willing to make change, not for change's sake, but because they recognize that we must change right now in order to keep Freemasonry alive.  Every election we hold in our lodges and Grand Lodges should be contested contests.  Yes, I understand that if your lodges are anything like my lodges, then you're lucky to even make quorum from month to month.  So maybe this is impossible. This leads me to my next point.  

In my case, I'm a plural member of a few lodges in order to keep their doors open.  In fact, the plural lodge I belong to, where I am currently Worshipful Master, is gaining membership.  I think that right now, every lodge that is having issues with quorum needs to look itself in the mirror and say to itself, I'm giving this 5 years.  If we've not turned the lodge around by 2027, we need to look to merge with another lodge. We need to realize that this is most likely the future, where in many rural counties or Masonic districts, there will be one or two lodges that are operating.  In metropolitan areas, this number might be slightly higher. I feel that having fewer lodges with more active membership is a better recipe for success than having 10 lodges all struggling to make a quorum.  

In merging lodges, we would be able to elect the most deserving members to positions of leadership, instead of continuing the rollercoaster of the Progressive Line, because we would have more members to choose from.  The hope then would be that this would impact the Grand Lodge elections as well. You would see a membership that was used to electing the best Freemasons for the job instead of shuffling the progressive line forward, which is the case now.  

However, all of this is dependent upon you.  You need to understand that change begins with you.  So if you're reading this, I hope that it inspires you to start looking around and seeing the direction of Freemasonry and trying to change the trajectory. We need to start fighting for changes in our lodges and Grand Lodges because the status quo isn't working.  When we look around at the state of the world, our values of are needed now more than ever.  We need to start promoting ourselves as being a refuge from the 24x7 news cycle, political, and religious discussion and hold true to keeping those dividing forces from infiltrating our lodges.  We need to start identifying men that are willing to work on themselves and bring our philosophy into the profane world by living by our principles.  I truly believe that this is our path forward.  But we can't do this without you.  Be the change.

~DAL

WB Darin A. Lahners is our Co-Managing Editor. He is a host and producer of the "Meet, Act and Part" podcast. He is currently serving the Grand Lodge of Illinois Ancient Free and Accepted Masons as the Area Education Officer for the Eastern Masonic Area. He is a Past Master of St. Joseph Lodge No.970 in St. Joseph. He is also a plural member of Homer Lodge No. 199 (IL), where he is also a Past Master. He’s also a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Danville, a charter member of Illinois Royal Arch Chapter, Admiration Chapter No. 282, Salt Fork Shrine Club under the Ansar Shrine, and a grade one (Zelator) in the S.C.R.I.F. Prairieland College in Illinois. He is also a Fellow of the Illinois Lodge of Research. He was presented with the Torok Award from the Illinois Lodge of Research in 2021. You can reach him by email at darin.lahners@gmail.com.  

Ketchup on a Saltine

by Midnight Freemason Contributor

WB Darin Lahners

Before I begin, I want to make sure that I disclose that this is my own personal opinion and does not reflect any official opinion of any Masonic Body that I am affiliated with.   I know a lot of Freemasons that take offense when some of our brethren publish something that says Freemasonry is dying. We are seeing more attrition than we are seeing replenishment of members.  That is a fact.  If that means we’re dying, then we’re dying.  I’m not sold on that as being our fate.  However, I will say that we have a lot of hard decisions to make about our future.  That being said, Freemasonry is local.  The decisions you make can only impact your local lodge or as I am going to suggest in this article local lodges. 

To begin, what I see as a major issue in Freemasonry is an existential struggle within Freemasonry borne out of an identity crisis.   We have a distinct subset of members that want Freemasonry to be a social organization, we have others that want it to be a mystery school, others that want it to be a philanthropic organization, and others that probably have another idea entirely of what it should be. In fact, I would be willing to bet that if you sat your own lodge membership down and asked them what they wanted Freemasonry’s identity to be; you’d receive a different answer from each member.   Some of the members will most likely regurgitate the tried and true: “Freemasonry takes good men and makes them better.”, while others might actually come up with something original.  Freemasonry has a rich history, but our members can’t even agree on our origins.  Some of us think we came from the guilds of the middle ages, or from the Knights Templar, or from the mystery schools.  It shouldn’t be a surprise that our membership can’t agree on what we are as an organization.  My point is: as members, we don’t know what we want to be. Ultimately, what Freemasonry was up to this point shouldn’t matter.  We need to start focusing on what we want to be.  My caveat is, you can only do this at your local lodge level.

If you’re anything like me, I know you’re thinking that your local lodge is part of the problem.  In my case, we’ve got a bunch of older members that don’t want to change anything.  We literally take six months to decide to change a light bulb.  Masonic Education?  When it does happen, I’m usually the one giving it, and I feel rushed through it.  The members don’t want to do anything outside of the lodge.  In my case, I had a plural membership in two other lodges within 10 miles of my home lodge.  I have just withdrawn my membership from one of the lodges, so I have a plural membership in one of those two.  In total, I was paying 145 dollars a year for my dues.  Don’t get me wrong, I have no issue with paying that amount of money for dues if I’m getting something from the meetings.  Personally, it’s hard for me to justify paying money for something that is advertising something it’s not delivering.  Let’s take a real-world example:  If you’re hungry for pizza, and you order a pizza, but what you receive is ketchup on a saltine cracker, are you going to pay for the pizza?  Any sane person is going to demand a refund or a new pizza.  

Freemasonry for many of us has become just this…Ketchup on a saltine.  Maybe when you first joined you didn’t know any better.  You kept going to the meetings because you felt like you were missing something.  Then, you kept going because you felt a sense of duty to do so.  Suddenly, you’re one of the officers, because let’s face it, you’re a warm body and the chairs need to be filled.  Then you’re a Warden, and before you know it, you’re Worshipful Master.  All of the time, you’re eating ketchup on a saltine.

Then something happens.  In my case, it was a visit to Lodge Vitruvian No. 767 in Indianapolis, Indiana.  I’ll call it the Morpheus moment, as it’s analogous to the scene in The Matrix where Morpheus offers Neo the Red Pill or the Blue Pill.   As described by Morpheus: "You take the blue pill...the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill...you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”  For Neo, the red pill represents an awakening to what reality is, and the blue pill represents the status quo.  The same happened to me after that visit.  It gave me a glimpse of what Freemasonry could be.  This vision was: Quarterly stated meetings, a traditional Observance/European Concept Lodge, formal dress for all lodge functions, an education program given at a Festive Board after every meeting, and the belief that dues should be paid to provide for and maintain the quality of the lodge and its programs. After visiting there, I realized that I had been eating ketchup on a saltine all of this time.  I have been taking the blue pill when I should have been demanding the red one.

Many lodges don’t know how to serve up anything other than ketchup on a saltine for its membership, and unfortunately, as nasty as it is, it is some nourishment for its membership.  It keeps the lodge alive, barely, but it’s not really attracting new membership nor is it retaining it on the off chance the lodge does get new membership.  Most of the members don’t know any better, so they keep eating it.  So many members are so used to it, that any suggestion of changing the menu is met with resistance.  In order to keep the harmony of the lodge intact, the menu remains ketchup on a saltine. 

Now imagine my current scenario, in the three lodges that I belong(ed) to, we are barely making quorum to open a meeting, the older membership is dying off or getting to the point where you can’t climb those stairs to the second floor, there isn’t a lot of new members and on the off chance that there is new membership, it is driven off by the lack of substance of the experience (ketchup on a saltine).  One of the lodges is providing an educational program every meeting, while the others are not.  The writing is on the wall.  These three lodges will eventually become one lodge.  So I dare ask the question, why should we wait to consolidate?  If I had my way, I’d start my own lodge, like Vitruvian.  Unfortunately, I’m not sure that I could find 19 other Freemasons in my area that would be willing to join me. If you’re reading this, know me personally, live in my general area and you’re willing to take such a chance, drop me an email or text.  That being said, if I have to eat ketchup on a saltine, isn’t it better to eat it once a month instead of three?

In my mind, the answer is yes.  I’d rather not eat it at all, but if I have to, the less that I can eat it the better.  But more importantly, maybe having to force your membership to confront a decision to consolidate, you might be able to do something that you hadn’t been able to do prior to now.  You might be able to get them to agree to look at changing the menu.  Maybe you’ll get them to agree that what you’ve been doing hasn’t been working and that it is time for a change.  Let’s hope that’s the outcome.  Maybe your members will agree to clear the trestle board and you can design a lodge that will appeal to everyone.  However, for the purposes of the article, let’s say that doesn’t occur, and you decide to consolidate with the other two lodges.

The major benefit that I see from consolidation is the growth in active membership.  Say for example each lodge averaged about 10 members per meeting.  Imagine what you could do with 30 active members. The first thing to do would be to get those 30 active members to agree on the mission of the lodge.  There would be a new trestle board that needs designs.  In the post covid world, you might actually be able to engage your communities again, and have programs that help the community, like hosting reading programs at the library, sponsoring AED/CPR classes, and supporting local charities by volunteering time instead of just money to name a few ideas. You could suggest having a festive board with an educational program just to try it out to see what the reception is.  Or at the very least, you might be able to get enough members to be interested in having an educational program that took place outside of the stated meeting.  That way, if your members weren’t interested in attending, they didn’t have to, but you still have a good percentage of the membership that might show up.  You’d be setting the menu, so hopefully, you can all agree that if ketchup on a saltine is what caused your lodges to merge, it probably might be a good idea to avoid serving it in the future.  The most important thing is that you’d have enough membership to support the programs above.  

In my scenario, two of the three buildings have renters and make income.  I would immediately put the one that does not up for sale. I would then look at converting one of the other lodges into a space that could generate more income, in this case, there’s enough room to make a nice loft apartment out of the space with minimal investment. The other lodge building would be held onto as the primary meeting spot for the new lodge.   With the income from the sale of the other building as well as the rental income, along with a discussion on how raising dues to make programs like the above possible would be beneficial, you might be able to get them all to agree that the lodge can afford more than ketchup on a saltine.    

I truly believe that a lot of Freemasons don’t know what Freemasonry can be because they’ve never been offered a choice.  If all you ever knew of was ketchup on a saltine, and someone offered you pizza; would you accept it?  You’d be wary of taking a bite.  But guess what, once you were convinced to take that bite, do you think you would go back to eating ketchup on a saltine willingly?  I know that I haven’t.  I’ve been fighting for change.  Unfortunately, change does not happen overnight and it only happens at the local lodge level.  It also happens incrementally.  One member at a time.  That’s what I think often gets lost in the shuffle, in order for change to happen, you need to be willing to be the one to offer it.  You need to start offering pizza to the other members.  If that means traveling to a lodge locally or not so locally that seems to be offering pizza, then do that.  My eyes were opened when I saw a lodge offering something different.  That’s ultimately the choice for the future of your lodge.  You continue to serve ketchup on a saltine, take the blue pill and see what status quo brings your lodge, or you can serve pizza, take the red pill and see how deep the rabbit hole goes. I hope you choose the red pill. 

~DAL

WB Darin A. Lahners is our co-managing Editor.  He is a Past Master of and Worshipful Master of St. Joseph Lodge No.970 in St. Joseph. He is also a plural member of Homer Lodge No. 199 (IL), where he is also a Past Master. He’s a member of the Scottish Rite Valley of Danville, a charter member of Illinois Royal Arch Chapter, Admiration Chapter No. 282 and is the current Secretary of the Illini High Twelve Club No. 768 in Champaign – Urbana (IL). You can reach him by email at darin.lahners@gmail.com