The Master’s Wheel

Head, Heart and Hands in balance

 Goals
• To explore a balanced approach to leadership
development using the Master’s Wheel.

• To understand the dangers and prevalence of

imbalance in training.

• To use the Master’s Wheel to brainstorm

what kinds of knowledge, character and skills
should be present in a spiritual leader.
 2Timothy 2:2
“…and what you have heard from me in the
presence of many witnesses

entrust to faithful men

who will be able to teach others also.”

The Master’s Wheel

Knowledge/Head

Gospel

Character/Heart Skills/Hands
 Balance is crucial
• A good curriculum (meaning course to be
run) is a proper balance of all three set in the
context of real life.

• Most leadership programs pull people out of

real life into artificial contexts and the
curriculum is nearly always imbalanced.

• Even 1-on-1 stuff trends this way, due to

materials and the discipler’s bent.
 Results of the FACT study
• Church leaders with NO formal theological training
scored highest in areas of conflict resolution and
stress. Bible college grads scored lower. Seminary
grads scored lowest.

• “…congregations with leaders who have a seminary

education are, as a group, far more likely to report
that in their congregations they perceive less clarity
of purpose, more and different kinds of conflict, less
person-to-person communication, [and] less
confidence in the future…”
 Exercise
• 3 groups will each take a particular
imbalance (head-heavy, heart-heavy, hands-
heavy) and will DRAW what someone might
look like. You will describe this person to the
rest of us.

• The other groups will draw a marquis for an

imbalanced seminary with a slogan OR the
cover of an imbalanced discipleship
curriculum and will present them to the rest
of us.
 Toward using the wheel
• There is ALWAYS overlap between the
sections, and between the kinds of
knowledge, character and skills needed for
different leadership roles..

• But, the wheel MUST be:

– Simple (to be useable)
– Role-specific (to be valid)
 Application
• Get in your cohorts and begin listing the
different things someone needs to know, be
like, and be able to do in order to lead well in
the role you’ve chosen.

• Be specific, and to keep it simple, cluster

things in families of topics.
 7 duties of a Catholic priest
• Preaching
• Sacraments
• Prayers for the flock
• Disciplined, godly life
• Church rites
• Supporting the poor
• Visiting the sick
 Barna’s Pastor Profile
• Casting vision
• Leadership development
• Preaching and teaching
• Fundraising
• Serving the needy
• Strategy and planning
• Organizing programs/activities
• Overseeing admin.
• Managing staff/volunteers
• Conflict resolution
• Representing cong. in comm.
• Care and counseling
• Evangelism
• Sacraments
• Discipling people
 Barna’s Pastor Profile
• Casting vision
• Leadership development
• Preaching and teaching
• Fundraising
• Serving the needy
• Strategy and planning
• Organizing programs/activities
• Overseeing admin.
• Managing staff/volunteers
• Conflict resolution
• Representing cong. in comm.
• Care and counseling
• Evangelism
• Sacraments
• Discipling people
 Barna’s Pastor Profile
• Casting vision
• Leadership development
• Preaching and teaching
• Fundraising?????
• Serving the needy
• Strategy and planning
• Organizing programs/activities
• Overseeing admin.
• Managing staff/volunteers
• Conflict resolution
• Representing cong. in comm.
• Care and counseling
• Evangelism
• Sacraments
• Discipling people
 Application
• Get in your cohorts and begin listing the
different things someone needs to know, be
like, and be able to do in order to lead well in
the role you’ve chosen.

• Be specific, and to keep it simple, cluster

things in families of topics.