Guest Commentator: How To Make A Mason, by WB William A. Isabelle

I am here to talk to you about how to make a Mason.

I am as active as I am in our Fraternity not because I am retired or wealthy, or because I am foregoing other commitments so that I may participate in Masonic activities. This is not the case at all.

I am as active as I am because I am the product of very involved Mentoring on the part of my Degree Coach, the Worshipful Master who conferred my degrees and my mother Lodge, all who supported me in my journey to become a Master Mason. When I was contacted with instructions of when to appear at the Lodge for my 1st Degree, I didn’t sleep the night before. I was absolutely elated that I had been accepted into the Lodge.

As soon as I had finished my Entered Apprentice lecture, I was re-conducted to the East and told to learn the Working Tools of the Entered Apprentice Mason, and be ready to present them in a week. I went home and spent another sleepless night pondering Masonry.

The following week I proved up on my Entered Apprentice Degree proficiency examination, acted as a supernumerary by helping to conduct a candidate for the Degrees of Masonry as a Junior Steward, and then presented the “Working Tools” to the initiate, as they had been given to me a week prior.

The point of this story is that I became involved in the Lodge and Masonry by being given an expectation of immediate participation, essentially I didn’t have a chance to become apathetic, melancholy or lethargic about my Lodge attendance because I had been given a responsibility to perform a function in Lodge. I certainly did not want to let myself down, and I certainly didn’t want to disappoint the new friends I had made who now called me brother.

In this same vein, I made a commitment to certain responsibilities within this Fraternity that I must follow through on because I agreed to do so when I was obligated as an Entered Apprentice Mason. To say that I don’t have time, or that coming to Lodge isn’t convenient, just is not acceptable. Why take on any responsibility that you are not fully prepared to live up to?

The members of my Mother Lodge, made such an indelible impression on me Masonicly, that I felt compelled to spread the word if you will. As a result of the very favorable opinion that I was left with after becoming a Master Mason, I brought 7 of my closest friends into my Lodge.

Brethren, it was because I had no idea what to expect from my first entrance into the Lodge, that I accordingly assumed that all Masons felt as I did about their initiation, that I was truly welcomed into an esteemed and vaunted ancient secret society, a sacred band of friends and brothers.

It was because of my ignorance that my Lodge was able to aptly mine and exploit my energy and participation in Lodge activities, besides how would I know any different? My Lodge set a very high standard for participation in ritual work, degree work, and friendship.

Brothers, our fraternity is not a secret society, it is a society with secrets, and even those can be easily gleaned at the library next door to us. It is more than acceptable to talk to non-Masons about your Masonic experiences and share with them some of the insights that you may have gained since you became a Mason.

Each of you has at least one male friend who is of age, who meets all of our minimum requirements and is eligible to become a Freemason, and I challenge each of you to make a commitment to ensure that this friend of yours becomes a Freemason in the next year.

Alright, I know what you’re thinking, “we’ve heard all of this before, and we will most assuredly hear it all again, with some new spin…” Well… that may be the case, but what have you done about it since the first time you heard this speech?

Brothers, there is one thing different about this speech, because you have never heard it from me. I am a new Mason, I am generation X, and when the 1 and a half million Freemasons that we have in North America right now, shrink to less than 500,000 in the next 7 years, I will no longer be the future of Freemasonry, I will be it’s present.

Since we all acknowledge that mortality is an ever-present looming shadow for each of us and that we only have so much time left, what are we doing to reinforce the fraternity right now?

Are we each individually doing our part?

Friendship, Fellowship, and Follow-Through are the three factors I want to focus on in this presentation regarding membership development and Masonic education.

How many of you speak to friends of yours who are non-Masons about Freemasonry? If they know you are a Freemason, then they no doubt have at least one or two questions about what you do at Lodge.

How many of you here tonight have obeyed your first obligation to the Fraternity by immediately replacing yourselves in your Lodge twice over?

How many of you brothers are or have been Mentoring Coaches for an initiate?

How many of you have brought your friends to the beauty and light of our Craft?

How many of you have brought the beauty and light of our Craft into the lives of your friends?

What are you brothers going to do today to make sure that I have co-workers to labor next to me in the quarries of our Craft tomorrow?

Brothers, what I am asking you is this, have you identified your successor, are you training your prodigy to be at least as competent as yourself, so that his contribution will be a reflection of your effective Mentoring and the wisdom of your experiences will be a base for his decision making process in the future?

I am gravely concerned, enough so to want to speak to each of you tonight, concerned enough to ask each of you if you are absolutely sure that there isn’t at least one man you know who should be a Freemason.

Brothers we can no longer afford to wait for the new guys to show up in the next wave of candidates. We must focus on being ever so much more proactive in our membership development efforts, but first we must educate ourselves so that we may share a cohesive understanding of what our organization is and is not in the world of today.

Brothers, I would like to share with you some insights from different conversations I have had with the 15 candidates that I have been the top-line signer, and proficiency coach for while they completed the Degrees of Freemasonry. Getting new members in the door is only one step; it is not the sum total of your obligation to your Lodge either.

Once you bring a man into the Lodge and he becomes a Mason, you are his Mentor Coach and friend for life. You must make even more effort to guide this new Mason to endeavors that will benefit him, the Lodge, and the Craft, in that order. Fellowship is the key component to maintaining Masonic relationships with your Candidate and developing new friendships with Masons whom you have known for years.

How many of you socialize with men outside of Lodge who are not Masons?

How many of you socialize with brothers from your Lodge or others Lodges in the area, outside of Lodge?

How many of you have called on a brother after a Lodge meeting when he was absent from the meeting?

How many of you have called on a brother before Lodge to see if you could give him a ride to the meeting?

How many of you regularly visit the other Lodges in your area?

How many of you brothers leave immediately after the stated business meeting, and forego the opportunity to have fellowship with your brethren?

How many of you brothers currently know of brothers who have not completed their Degree work?

The answers to these questions are your own, but as such you should use them to consider if there isn’t perhaps the opportunity to create new fellowship experiences within your Lodge, as well as setting an example to any Mason that you impact with your participation and visitation.
Follow through brothers, follow through is the key, you must stay in regular contact with your candidates as they progress in the Craft, if you don’t follow through, then both you and your candidate lose out on each other’s perspectives, activities and ultimately your developing friendship.

If the activities that you steer him toward do not benefit him as a man and as a Mason, then he is not going to make a concerted effort to follow through on his end because he has not realized a positive return for his expended energies.

· Ensure that your candidate has the means to get to Lodge

· Meet with your candidate twice a week to ensure his progression in the degrees

· Make sure that you have the right information to share with your candidate for the moment that he asks for more light

· Dedicate time outside of Lodge for your own Masonic education

· Get a schedule of the Lodge meetings in the area, and go visit other Lodges with your candidate

· Present your candidate with a Masonic book or other reference material

Brothers we must identify current examples of successful Masons and Masonry, we must stop relying on past glory and the deeds of others to tell the story of the beauty of the Craft to its newest initiates. Who are the leaders of modern society, who are the explorers, scientists, poets, actors, politicians, businessmen, teachers, athletes, philanthropists, and doers-of-good deeds in our society today, and how many of them are Masons?

If we don’t know, then we should collectively make it our business to find out, because those are the examples that we should be using today to shape the minds of the Masons who will ultimately govern our Fraternity tomorrow.

Brethren it is our responsibility today to actively seek out those among us who should be Masons for the future. It is our job, our obligation to give back to our Lodges by providing for the future in the Masons that we make and keep today.

Used by permission of the author.