Brotherly Comments: Getting What You Put In...

 

 

Brother 1: Some Freemasons (and appendant bodies) use the statement, "You get out if it what you put into it" towards those that leave the organization/s. How many that leave quietly have made their decision because they think the same towards the fraternity?

 

Coach: Yes... AND even worse... The members who eventually leave too often have put FAR TOO MUCH into the organization and have not gotten anywhere near what they SHOULD have gotten in return.

The offered ROI in Freemasonry is worse than poor for these investing members. It's depressing in far too many cases.

 

Fortunately, when members ignore most of what Freemasonry uses to distract members with, and invest in the Masonry that Ritual directs us toward, their ROI is overwhelmingly abundant to the positive.

 

If only more Lodges divested themselves of their vices and superfluities.

 

Brother 2:  Your last sentence is a great statement. I never thought of identifying a lodge's collective activities that do not contribute to a Mason's development as vices & superfluities. But, in fact, that is what they are. Unproductive actions that need to be eliminated.

 

Coach: Thanks!  It's Brothers like you who inspire me to speak the truth as I see it. Thanks for letting me know you see relevance in them.

 

Lodges who dare to take the time to list any and all activities that create undue strain and stress on their Lodges, make an action plan to effectively reduce, and better yet work to eliminate them, are in a far better position to keep existing and future members.

 

Those Lodges (and Grand Lodges!) who don't do this as a matter of daily course, are screaming to their members and Lodges that the very principles each member is directed to do will never be done collectively.   

 

And THAT message, "we will as a Lodge ignore our vices and superfluities", is what serious and dedicated Masons listen to intently and divest themselves of accordingly and appropriately by leaving.   

 

Members who leave have divested themselves of these vices and superfluities.

 

 

 

A Brother Asks: Making Master Masons

 

A Brother Asks: Isn't the basic function of a Masonic Lodge is to make Master Masons? 

Coach: Unfortunately, for most every Lodge, the entire purpose of a Freemasonic Lodge is thought to be to make members. This is so that the money coming in from those members will help to cover the overhead of the white elephants they maintain. Those white elephants are their lodge building and associated properties commonly owned by the Fraternal organization itself. 

As far as making Master Masons, this is very far from the actual reality of Lodge operations. Lodges can call the members who go through three degrees "Master Masons" till the end of time or till they turn blue in the face, whichever comes first. However, with rare exception, these assembly line members are merely dues paying members. They're anything but masterful in what espoused Ritual asks of them. Most members have no clue what their Masonic purpose is.

Brother: Then what should the Lodge's focus upon to correct this?

Coach: The Lodge's Basic Function SHOULD be first and foremost making Masterful Masons. This focus would shift their activity insanity FROM new membership driven activities that try to keep the doors open by making more members TO a sane betterment drive that attracts new members because these pre-masons see evidence of mastery in the current membership.

With rare exception, pre-masons will NEVER see Masonic Mastery exhibited by the majority of the Lodge members they inspect because Masonic Mastery has NOT been cultivated in them; just the ability to memorize and regurgitate stuff that they have little to no understanding of.