A blogging brother commented on the "future of Freemasonry" as being the younger members. The main thrust of the blog was how does one in our modern society attract men who would otherwise have no knowledge or inklking that Freemasonry even exists. In the process of commenting on the entry I found that I had written more than the original entry. I think he raised some interesting points. Looking back on what I wrote before hitting the submit button, it dawned on me that I had also raised some interesting points. Below is the response that I put on his website.

In today’s world, where everyone has (and broadcasts) lofty ambitions, goals, and glossy 4-colour pamphlet I find there is a great deal of talk and not a lot of action. Actions speak louder than words. By constantly acting in the manner to which Freemasonry has historically been associated, our actions will speak louder than any 4-colour pamphlet we could produce.

A man has to be ready in his heart and mind to fully appreciate, understand, and integrate with the tenets of Freemasonry. I feel that this cannot be done in an overt manner and “forcing” someone to become aware of the Craft or to join it. I wear the bling and speak openly about it when someone asks. But I do it in a subtle manner, much like the personality of the Craft.

So we go through our daily lives as Masons in a manner that does not hit men over the head with it. What does that provide us? It provides us a group of men who come to the fraternity because they want to. If I see someone I respect doing something, then I am much more likely to ask questions about it and if I join their group, I am more likely to be strong on the uptake and stay around after the initial excitement has worn off. This commitment is what we need to sustain our membership.

But I have never fully understood this apparently insatiable need to swell our ranks. I see it as the quality vs. quantity debate. When I am in a Lodge, I would much rather have a smaller group of men doing great ritual work and outside the Lodge, having a group of men that support me in all aspects. Freemasonry is still a tremendous organization even if there’s 20 or 20,000 members in your jurisdiction. In North America, each state/province has their own Grand Lodge. Is there really a need for this? In the business world, there is a lot of mergers happening and regions being merged together. I wonder sometimes if there is an ego thing happening as it relates to Grand Lodges not considering amalgamation. Individual Lodges do this all the time when one or more is struggling and then proceed to thrive. There is a certain number that is required to attain critical mass otherwise not much can happen.

Look at some of the other groups that are similar, what are their numbers like? Probably not as good as Freemasonry’s. Big is not always better.

So if the current roster of Freemasonry is aging and newer members are required to keep the numbers at least stable, then how can this be accomplished? Act in your regular life as the best Mason you can be. Let your male friends and coworkers know that you are a Mason. If they are in the right place in their lives, then they will see and respect your strong morals and values and start talking to you about it. Otherwise, they are likely to join, drift through the degrees, and then fade into the darkness. Once that has occurred, then they will go forward with the message that Freemasonry is not worthy of their friend/coworker’s time and effort. Is that the message we want to have conveyed?

I think back to the NE angle lecture, “…from the foundation laid this evening, may raise a superstructure perfect in its parts and honourable to the builder.” Also about the rough and smooth ashlars. The rough ashlar was selected from the quarry because it was seen as having good qualities and is thus formed into a perfect ashlar by removing its rough edges. A poor stone would not have been selected. We are all rough ashlars who saw in ourselves and by others that there were good qualities worthy of refinement towards a perfect ashlar. Is our goal to find every decent piece of rock in the world and turn it into a perfect ashlar? Or is it to take the ones that we find in the quarry of our daily lives and work on perfecting them. Even with this very selective process, there has been a great number of buildings created my Masons over the centuries. If every rock that had potential was made perfect, I suspect we’d have a few more magnificent buildings, but would likely have a lot more piles of perfect ashlars without a use.