Let me see if I have this right. The millenials are joining the lodges and instead of becoming part of the Lodge's traditions are instead trying to change them, and when the caretakers of Freemasonry are telling them "no", the millenials are storming off with their knickers in a twist.
Mybe if the young men joining were properly prepared in their heart to become Masons it wouldn't be as much of an issue.
While I do agree with many of the points of the article that the generational gap between the current leadership in many lodges and the new generation joining is an issue. Let's face it, 20 somethings don't want to sit around and play cribbage. What we often see is the brand new Brother with less than a year in who thinks he knows how to "fix" everything already and gets upset that nobody will listen to him. The fact that the article assigns no fault to the millennial need for instant gratification clashing in a Lodge system that was designed to be ponderous and slow moving for a reason is a glaring oversight and appears to try to put all the blame on one side.
I have also been a member of a regular lodge in my jurisdication these past 20 odd years. I have seen the attitude enough to stand by my argument. And my EC Lodge didn't go to the established Lodges and tell them to change how they were doing things because we knew better. We worked within the establish system and laws and started a new Lodge to set the example of our vision of a better way. And when Brothers from all over came to visit and saw that it works, they brought many of those ideas back to their home lodges.That’s perhaps a little harsh coming from someone who’s lodge is unique in their jurisdiction... obviously you wanted to change the traditions, as well.
Let me see if I have this right. The millenials are joining the lodges and instead of becoming part of the Lodge's traditions are instead trying to change them, and when the caretakers of Freemasonry are telling them "no", the millenials are storming off with their knickers in a twist.
Mybe if the young men joining were properly prepared in their heart to become Masons it wouldn't be as much of an issue.
While I do agree with many of the points of the article that the generational gap between the current leadership in many lodges and the new generation joining is an issue. Let's face it, 20 somethings don't want to sit around and play cribbage. What we often see is the brand new Brother with less than a year in who thinks he knows how to "fix" everything already and gets upset that nobody will listen to him. The fact that the article assigns no fault to the millennial need for instant gratification clashing in a Lodge system that was designed to be ponderous and slow moving for a reason is a glaring oversight and appears to try to put all the blame on one side.
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This is the mentality that I spoke of in my article.
And I'm saying you are assigning blame only to one side when both sides are bringing problems to the table.
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Combining smaller lodges will not solve our problem.. because it is cyclic. How many times have you seen a lodge merge more than once, the underlying problem is still there. I hear you on youth in a lodge, but visitors can achieve the same.. which is much easier here because we meet monthly rather than weekly.Freemasonry is shrinking I like to think. We hit the 'bubble' years ago and now we have all this GL, BL infrastructure everywhere that nobody can afford to keep up. I think a solution is to consolidate (PHA included) and quit spreading ourselves so thin. Some people say keep the lodges small but when a new candidate shows up on EA night and sees 9 people there and 6 of them are in there 70s, he may have a hard time relating to them and not come back whereas under consolidation, he shows up and there is a nicer building due to some many men paying dues to one BL, not 12 different BLs in one mid-size town, 50 to 150 members there and an overall good experience. Maybe then he'll be an active member and we can actually start turning people away instead of letting every body that knocks in the doors.
The area where I live, 3 failing lodges merged. Built a nice new one level lodge thinking that coming together and building a new lodge would solve their issue. But if it wasn't for visiting brothers for degree work, and those with plural memberships to these three , they wouldn't have enough to open a business meeting let alone degree work.
Consolidating lodges is more often than not, a way to manage decline, not reverse it.