Perspectives of a Young Templar

I am now in my 18th year as a Sir Knight of the Valiant and Magnanimous Order of the Temple. I first wanted to write this article in 2013, when I was serving as Eminent Commander. The hustle and bustle of everyday life intervened, however, and the article sat quietly among the drafts of my blog. Eventually, I decided that perhaps that was for the best. I wanted more time to observe the fraternity, and later I resolved to wait until I had served as Grand Commander before putting these thoughts into writing. There is, of course, some irony in the title Perspectives of a Young Templar: after 18 years in Templary and more than a decade since I first conceived this article, I am no longer certain I qualify as “young” either in age or experience, but I digress.

That passage of time changed my perspective and this article has gone through several revisions.

I joined the York Rite because its bodies, and particularly the Knights Templar, intrigued me from the beginning of my Masonic journey. As a Christian Mason, I believed that the Order of the Temple was a natural destination for me. Its ritual impressed me then, and it still does. When properly performed, the Order of the Temple is, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful and memorable ceremonies in all Freemasonry.

Yet I also began noticing problems within the Commandery. Some were unique to Templary, while others reflected problems affecting Freemasonry as a whole. Over the years, I have become convinced that many of them are interconnected.

Membership is perhaps the most visible problem, but I am no longer convinced that declining membership is itself the disease. In many cases, it is merely the symptom.

If we want healthy Commanderies, Chapters, Councils, and Lodges, we have to ask a more difficult question than just, "How do we get more members?"

We must ask, "Why should a man want to become one of us? And once he does, why should he want to stay?"

The answer touches nearly everything we do: recruiting, retention, dues and fees, education, mentorship, ritual, leadership, long-term planning, technology, community service, religious observances, fellowship, and even how we present ourselves in public. Above all, it requires us to decide whether our goal is simply to have more names on the rolls or to build better Masons and Knights.

I wish the latter.

Quality Before Quantity

American Freemasonry once possessed membership numbers that today seem almost unimaginable. That era is gone, and I do not believe our objective should be to recreate it.

Smaller membership does not necessarily mean weaker.

A Commandery of 30 active and enthusiastic Sir Knights may accomplish far more than a Commandery with 300 members on its books but only 10 who regularly attend. A smaller fraternity in which men know one another, understand its teachings, participate in its work, and value their membership can be healthier than a massive organization concerned primarily with maintaining statistics.

We should therefore stop measuring success simply by how many petitions we receive.

Petitions matter. Knightings matter. Restorations matter. None of those statistics, however, tells us whether a man will still be sitting beside us 5 or 10 years later.

Every Commandery should have an active Membership Committee, but its responsibilities should be divided equally between recruitment and retention. Recruiting a man whom we cannot retain accomplishes very little. Worse, continually replacing departing members can disguise deeper institutional problems.

The goal is not merely to create another Knight Templar. The goal is to create a Knight Templar who values being a Knight Templar.

We Cannot Expect Men to Find Us

Freemasonry has sometimes confused non-solicitation with silence. There is a difference between improperly pressuring a man to petition and making sure he knows who we are, what we do, and that we would welcome his interest.

The Knights Templar cannot sit quietly behind the walls of an Asylum and expect Christian Masons to come knocking simply because we believe our Order is worthwhile. If we value Templary, we should be capable of explaining why. That requires knowledgeable Sir Knights.

A man cannot convincingly explain the value of an organization he barely understands himself. Every Sir Knight should know the history, purposes, symbolism, philanthropy, religious character, and activities of the Order well enough to explain them intelligently. More importantly, he must demonstrate those values through his conduct.

Our best recruiting program will always be our members. When another Mason sees Sir Knights who are knowledgeable, honorable, active in their churches and communities, enthusiastic about Masonry, and bound together by genuine friendship, he will naturally wonder what they have found in Templary.

That is far more powerful than a cheesy slogan.

Commanderies should nevertheless actively promote awareness of the York Rite. Sir Knights should visit Lodges, explain the York Rite, support Craft Masonry, participate in Masonic education, attend other Masonic functions, and make themselves visible throughout the fraternity.

We should also embrace modern communications. A Commandery with no meaningful online presence is effectively invisible to a large portion of the population. Websites, social media, electronic newsletters, online registration, electronic payments, and other technologies do not diminish our traditions. They are simply tools.

Tradition tells us what we preserve. It does not require us to preserve every outdated method by which we once accomplished it.

"We have always done it that way" is not a philosophy of preservation. Too often, it is an excuse for stagnation.

Retention Begins Before the Petition

Recruitment receives enormous attention because it produces an easily measured number. Retention is harder. Retention begins with expectations.

If we portray Templary as something profound, historic, spiritual, chivalric, and transformative, and then a candidate encounters poorly performed ritual, indifferent officers, empty sidelines, endless arguments over bills, and nothing of substance between meetings, we should not be surprised when he disappears.

We promised him one thing and delivered another.

This is particularly important with younger Masons. Many younger men are not joining Freemasonry because they lack anything else to do. Modern life provides endless entertainment and countless organizations competing for their time. Many come to Masonry specifically because they are searching for something they cannot easily find elsewhere: tradition, fraternity, philosophy, ritual, mentorship, self-improvement, history, and meaningful fraternal relationships with other men.

If they come seeking those things and find only pancake breakfasts and business meetings, the problem is not necessarily that "young men aren't committed anymore."

Perhaps we failed to give them anything worth committing to.

Retention therefore begins by ensuring that the experience lives up to the promise.

Cheapening the Experience

There is an unfortunate tendency in Masonry to believe that making something cheaper, faster, and easier will make it more attractive. I believe the opposite is often true. The harder we struggle for something, the more precious it becomes. Investment creates value. That investment can take many forms: money, time, study, effort, memorization, service, or personal sacrifice.

Historically, Masonic membership represented a meaningful financial and personal commitment. Today, many Lodges and Masonic bodies are reluctant to raise dues even when decades of inflation have dramatically reduced their real value.

We should never price a worthy man out of Masonry, and assistance should always be available when genuinely needed, but neither should we be ashamed to charge enough to provide a worthwhile experience. The same principle applies to our degrees.

In our desire to accommodate candidates, we have sometimes made progression so rapid that a man has no opportunity to absorb what he has experienced. A festival may be convenient and sometimes necessary, particularly across large geographic jurisdictions, but convenience should never become our principal objective. The purpose of initiation is not efficiency. The candidate is not a product moving down an assembly line.

When several degrees and Orders are presented in rapid succession, the symbolism, lessons, emotional impact, and individual character of each can blur together. If festivals are necessary, then they should be supported by strong mentorship and education before and afterward. A candidate should have time to contemplate what he has received. Freemasonry should leave a mark upon him, not a stain.

Education and Mentorship

One of the greatest opportunities available to Masonry is also one of the simplest: teach Masonry.

Every Lodge and York Rite body should cultivate an environment in which members are desirous to learn and willing to teach.

Education does not require an hour-long academic lecture at every meeting. A 10-minute presentation on a symbol, historical figure, passage of ritual, Biblical reference, piece of regalia, or episode in Templar history can begin a discussion that sends members home wanting to learn more.

We should not fear the philosophical, symbolic, religious, or esoteric dimensions of our traditions. Those are precisely the subjects that often attracted men to Freemasonry in the first place.

Mentorship is equally important. A new member should never receive his degrees, be handed a dues card, and then be expected to figure everything out himself. Every candidate should have someone responsible for helping him understand the organization, introducing him to its members, answering questions, encouraging attendance, and guiding his education.

This becomes especially important when degrees are conferred at festivals. The festival should be the beginning of his education, not the end of it.

Education also strengthens recruitment. A Sir Knight who understands Templary can explain Templary. A man who understands the meaning behind our ritual will perform it differently. An officer who understands our history and purposes will lead differently.

Knowledge creates enthusiasm, and enthusiasm is contagious.

Ritual Must Mean Something

The Order of the Temple, when properly performed, is the true capstone of the American York Rite. Its lessons of mortality, immortality, faith, reverence, sacrifice, courage, and devotion to Christ can leave a tremendous impression upon the candidate.

Ritual possesses power only when we treat it as though it matters.

Poor ritual is often a symptom of a struggling Commandery. If members rarely meet, rarely practice, and have little enthusiasm for the work, ritual proficiency inevitably declines. As the ritual declines, the candidate's experience declines. As the experience declines, retention becomes more difficult. The cycle feeds itself.

Learning ritual means more than memorizing words. A ritualist should understand what he is saying, why he is saying it, and what emotion or lesson he is attempting to communicate. The candidate has paid his fees, invested his time, placed his confidence in us, and presented himself for initiation. We owe him our best effort. He should leave the asylum believing that what just occurred mattered.

If our ritual is supposed to inspire awe, solemnity, reflection, and transformation, then we should perform it accordingly.

Fellowship Is Not Optional

Men do not join fraternities merely to attend meetings. They join fraternities to form bonds of friendship.

Masonry has historically understood the importance of the festive board, communal dining, toasts, conversation, and fellowship. Somewhere along the way, too many Masonic bodies reduced the meeting to opening, reading minutes, paying bills, conducting routine business, closing, and going home. Then we wonder why nobody wants to attend.

Business should be conducted efficiently. Routine matters should be handled by committees whenever possible. A budget can eliminate the need to spend valuable meeting time repeatedly approving ordinary expenses. Use the time we save to do something worthwhile.

Have dinner, invite a speaker, discuss Masonry, hold a festive board, bring families together, visit another Commandery, attend church together, hold a picnic, organize a historical excursion, recognize members for their service, or simply give the Sir Knights time to sit together and talk.

A banquet or social gathering is not frivolous. Fellowship is one of the principal reasons fraternities exist.

Our families should also occasionally receive some of the time and attention that Masonry borrows from them. Family activities allow spouses and children to understand why Masonry matters to us while strengthening relationships among our members.

Brotherhood cannot exist solely within ritual. It must become true friendship.

Faith Must Produce Action

The Knights Templar is explicitly Christian, but merely proclaiming ourselves a Christian Order accomplishes little. Faith requires action.

Our religious programs should therefore extend beyond formal observances. Easter, Christmas, and Ascension observances are important traditions and should be preserved, but Templary should also be visible through service.

Attend church together; support hospital chapels, veterans' homes, shelters, and community ministries; recognize Sir Knights who serve their churches; assist widows; help an elderly member with work around his home; pay the dues of a Brother experiencing hardship; help a family whose home burned; or support a local community project.

Charity does not mean just writing a check. Sometimes our time is the more valuable gift.

Large institutional philanthropies accomplish tremendous good and deserve our support, but they should not become a substitute for helping the human being standing directly in front of us.

If Templary represents Christianity in action, our communities should be able to see that action.

Leadership, Planning, and Continuity

A Commandery cannot succeed if it reinvents itself every year. One of the weaknesses built into many Masonic organizations is the annual progression of officers. A Commander takes office with his own program, serves a year, and is replaced by another Commander with another program. Good ideas disappear simply because the man who introduced them left office. We need continuity.

Commanders and their junior officers should develop multi-year plans together. The officers progressing toward the East should understand those plans and contribute to them long before assuming command.

Committees should actually function. Responsibilities should be delegated. Officers should have written descriptions of their duties and resources explaining how to perform them. Past Commanders can provide invaluable experience and institutional memory, but they must advise rather than govern from the sidelines.

Likewise, advancement through the officer line should not be automatic. Being an officer is a privilege, not a right. The next man in line should be capable of performing the duties of the office he is about to assume. A Commander must know the Order, understand its ritual and traditions, be capable of leading men, and possess a vision for his Commandery.

We do neither the man nor the Commandery any favor by placing someone into an office for which he is unprepared simply because "it is his turn."

Leadership matters too much for that.

Appearance

Presentation also communicates value. I have long believed that Masons should dress in a manner appropriate to the dignity of the institution. That does not mean that every Masonic event requires extravagant clothing, but our appearance should communicate that what we are doing matters. The same principle applies to the Templar uniform.

Our uniform connects us visibly with the identity, heritage, and ceremonial character of the Order. At the same time, we should be willing to have serious discussions about cost, practicality, climate, accessibility, and appearance.

A uniform that becomes prohibitively expensive can become a barrier to participation. Commanderies and Grand Commanderies should consider uniform exchanges, used-uniform programs, subsidies, or other ways of helping new Sir Knights obtain the necessary regalia.

Preserving tradition and addressing practical realities are not mutually exclusive. The question should always be: Does this practice strengthen the identity, dignity, and mission of Templary?

If it does, preserve it. If it does not, we should at least be willing to discuss it.

There Is No Single Solution

Nothing I have written should be interpreted as advocating a single model for every Commandery, or even for a Lodge.

There is no cookie-cutter solution to renewal.

A “Traditional Observance” model may flourish in one community and fail in another. A rural Commandery cannot necessarily operate like one in a major metropolitan area. A body with 20 members faces different challenges from one with 200.

Nor should we romanticize some supposed golden age of Freemasonry. Every generation of Masonry has faced problems, and blindly attempting to recreate the fraternity of 1920, 1950, or 1970 is no more sensible than refusing to preserve anything from those periods.

The goal is not to make Templary old-fashioned. The goal is to make it timeless.

That means identifying what constitutes the heart of our institution (our faith, ritual, symbolism, standards, traditions, fellowship, charity, and commitment to self-improvement) and defending it vigorously while remaining willing to change methods that no longer serve it.

Tradition and innovation are not enemies. Innovation should serve tradition.

Apathy Is the Enemy

It is easy to blame declining membership on older members who refuse to change. It is equally easy for older members to blame younger generations for lacking commitment. Neither explanation is sufficient. I have seen older Masons fight passionately for innovation and younger Masons display complete indifference. Renewal cannot simply be imposed from the top, nor can it be accomplished through generational warfare. It requires systemic participation.

Older members possess experience, institutional knowledge, and memories that should not be discarded. Younger members bring energy, new perspectives, technological familiarity, and different expectations. A healthy fraternity needs both.

The real enemy is not age. It is apathy.

Apathy is the Sir Knight who complains that nobody attends, but never calls an absent member.

Apathy is the officer who accepts a chair, but refuses to learn his work.

Apathy is the ritualist who decides "good enough" is good enough.

Apathy is the Commandery that has done the same thing for 30 years, watches attendance decline, and responds by doing the same thing again.

Apathy is also the young Mason who sees something he dislikes and simply walks away rather than helping improve it.

If something in Masonry disappoints us, our first response should not always be departure.

Sometimes we must be the change we want to see.

What Are We Offering?

Ultimately, every discussion about membership returns to this question: “What are we offering?”

If we offer men another monthly business meeting, there are easier ways to spend an evening. If we offer them another charitable organization, there are thousands from which to choose. If we offer cheap dues, quick degrees, mediocre ritual, little education, and few meaningful relationships, then even aggressive recruiting will only postpone decline.

That is not what Templary is capable of offering.

We can offer a Christian Mason a fraternity grounded in faith and virtue. We can offer him ritual that confronts him with mortality, sacrifice, duty, courage, and immortality. We can offer him the symbolism and ideals of Christian knighthood. We can offer education that challenges his intellect and encourages him to contemplate the deeper meaning of Masonry. We can offer opportunities to serve his church, his community, his country, his family, and his fellow man. We can offer mentorship. We can offer tradition. We can offer standards. Perhaps most importantly, we can offer genuine brotherhood.

If we provide those things, membership becomes less mysterious.

Men value institutions that provide value to their lives. They remain where they are challenged, respected, needed, educated, and loved.

The future of Templary will not be secured simply by convincing more men to petition. It will be secured by making membership worth seeking and worth keeping.

Our task, therefore, is not merely to increase our numbers. It is to raise our standards. It is to make our programs worthy of the Sir Knight who gives us his evening, our leadership worthy of the confidence placed in it, and our fraternity worthy of the traditions entrusted to our care.

If we accomplish that, recruitment will become easier because men will see something worth joining. Retention will become easier because they will have found something worth keeping.

The Knights Templar do not need to abandon their traditions to survive the 21st century.

We need to remember why those traditions mattered in the first place and then have the courage to make them matter again.