​

THE RIGHT REVEREND DR. BARBARA ETTA AUSTIN LUCAS, affectionately called Mother-Bishop, Bishop Barbara, or Dr. Austin Lucas by both her natural and spiritual children, is the Chief Prelate of Agape Tabernacle World Outreach Ministries, the Prelate and Senior Pastor Ex Officio of Agape Tabernacle International Fellowship, and the First Consecrated Woman Bishop of the Dunamis Covenant Connection (DCC) under the visionary leadership of The Most Reverend Dr. Robert Joel Rochford, Sr. ​At present, the Academic Affairs of DCC and Dunamis Covenant Connection Institute (DCCI) are under her direction as Director, at the behest of Archbishop Rochford. She has distinguished herself for over five (5) decades as an Apostle, Pastor, Missionary, Evangelist, Theologian, Religious Educator, and Community Activist. An influential visionary and leader of leaders, Bishop Austin Lucas is known for her dynamic, energetic style of preaching.

After fifty (50) years of missionary service coupled with forty-four (44) years of ordained ministry within the connectional African Methodist Episcopal (A.M.E.) Church, Bishop Austin Lucas, received the honor of Retirement from the Itinerant Ministry of the A.M.E. Church at the 193rd Session of the New York Annual Conference of the First District of the A.M.E. Church. During her A.M.E. tenure, she served as the initial participant of the Teachers-In-Partnership Program sponsored by the A.M.E. Church. Her assignment was to Monrovia, Liberia (West Africa) within the Fourteenth Episcopal District where she taught English at the University of Liberia and Monrovia College. Since her initial 1974 missionary training in Monrovia, Liberia, she has sponsored subsequent Educational Mission Tours/Workshops [Haiti, West Africa, and the Caribbean]; established and co-founded ministries and programming internationally recognized as models of vision and change in Liberia [1974-1975], Pennsylvania [1976-1977] and New York [1977-1996]; and spearheaded the establishment of youth programming [After Schools & Summer programs], the training of missionaries [youth and adults] and a Preparatory School. During her Assistant Pastor tenure, Bridge Street A.W.M.E. Church (1986-1996) evidenced tremendous membership growth (700 to over 4,000), resources ($200,000 to a multi-million dollar enterprise), and spiritual enrichment. This inner-city faith model was nationally recognized in the news media and published works regarding faith-based community development and the Black Church by such distinguished authors as C. Eric Lincoln.

In 1989, Bishop Austin Lucas founded Women Organizing, Mobilizing, and Building, Inc. (WOMB) – a faith-based not-for-profit purposed to assist women and their families, through creative and needful programming. With a holistic approach to community development, each procures spiritual, physical, mental, emotional, and economic wellness. WOMB services thousands of women annually in the programming of five (5) service areas which include: 1) H.I.V./Aids Prevention; 2) African Women of The Diaspora Link-Up [A.W.D.L.]; 3) Motivating Ourselves and Our Children A Joint Agenda [M.O.J.A.]; 4) Sisters Strengthening Other Sisters [S.S.O.S.], and 5) Women and Economic Development [W.E.D.]. As a result of its accomplishments, WOMB sponsors several national and international initiatives such as the Sisters Sharing Gathering, the Bring Our Men Back (B.O.M.B.) Series, the WOMB Investment Club, the Winning Weight Health & Fitness Campaign, the Women in Leadership Lecture (WILL) Series, the Annual Prayer Breakfast, the Annual Destiny Walk™, the S.H.E.R.O.E. Sherehe, and the “A Date with Destiny” Tour. In 1998, Bishop Austin Lucas founded the Agape Tabernacle International Fellowship which is headquartered in the Canarsie section of Brooklyn with satellite locations in Long Island, NY; Harlem, NY: Staten Island, NY; Atlanta, GA; and Durham, NC, to name a few. As an international ministry of transformation, disciples of all nations are encouraged to cultivate a personal relationship with God, manifest destiny, and discern the purpose of God in every life experience. The live broadcast of Agape Tabernacle International Fellowship, Agape in All Your Ways, has blessed thousands throughout the Tri-state area and the Just a Word podcast aspires to do the same. ​As the governing body for Agape Tabernacle International's partnering leaders and affiliated bodies, Bishop Austin Lucas established the Agape Tabernacle World Outreach Ministries in 2010.

As an avid learner, Bishop Austin Lucas has earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Tufts University (Medford, MA); a Master of Arts degree in Afro-American Studies from Boston University (Boston, MA); a Master of Divinity degree in Counseling, and Family Ministry from Colgate Rochester Divinity School (Rochester, NY); Master of Education degree from Teachers College at Columbia University (New York, NY); Doctor of Education degree in Religion and Education with an emphasis in Urban Education from Union Theological Seminary and Teachers College at Columbia University (New York, NY); Doctor of Ministry degree in life Together – Spirituality for Transforming Community – from Wesley Theological Seminary (Washington, D.C.); and Doctor of Public Policy and Administration degree from Walden University (Minneapolis, MN). Bishop Austin Lucas, a Master Teacher, has taught at and collaborated with such renowned institutions as Auburn Theological Seminary, Medgar Evers College of the City University of New York, New York Theological Seminary, Shaw Divinity School, Spelman College, and Union Theological Seminary, to name a few. In 2016, she received the honor of Retirement after her eleven-year tenure as Professor of Religious Education and Urban Ministry at the New York Campus of Nyack College and Alliance Theological Seminary (A.T.S.).

During her fifty (50) years of ministering and teaching Christians worldwide, The Right Reverend Dr. Barbara Etta Austin Lucas has received numerous awards and recognition for her accomplishments from such organizations as the Key Women of America, Inc., the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (N.A.A.C.P.), the Long Island Historical Society, the Church Women United, Inc., the New York Women’s Society, and a host of national and international churches and/or organizations. Most notably, inducted into the Kappa Delta Pi Honor Society for Education, The Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Collegium of Scholars Hall of Fame (1999), and The Morehouse College Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers (2023). She accompanied The American Jewish Committee as one (1) of eleven (11) African American Clergy selected to participate in the Project Interchange Program — an eight-day intensive travel seminar in Israel. Furthermore, she traveled as an International Clergy Delegate to South Africa and served as a Religious Education Presenter at the July 2005 Oxford Roundtable. As a woman of African descent, one of her highest honors was being enstooled as “Queen Mother Afia Asantewaa” in the village of Ejisu-Kumasi, Ghana, West Africa (the town of Yaa Asantewaa) in 2011.  She has served on distinguished Advisory Boards such as the Sisters Center for WISDOM (Women In Spiritual Discernment of Ministry) of Spelman College (Atlanta, GA) and the Museum of the Bible (Washington, DC), to name a few. At Gammon Theological Seminary, a historically African American institution in Atlanta, GA, she served as the Distinguished Theologian in partnership with The Interdenominational Theological Center. In keeping with its mission, she educated and equipped seminarians for ministry as Bishops, Presiding Elders, Pastors, Chaplains, Educators, and Scholars. As of 2018, her BEAL Educational Tour Series is purposed to provide religious education travel course for those seeking in-depth study in some of our nation’s lesson-enriched locations for grassroots, faith-based leaders, such as Washington, D.C., Birmingham, AL, and Seneca Falls, NY, to name a few. As of 2020, she is an Adjunct Professor in the Departments of Religion and Philosophy at Medgar Evers College (Brooklyn, NY). 

Her published literary works, A Sermon for Your Pocket: God Can Turn Your Situation Around and Love You to Life, provide readers with an opportunity to engage with her remarkable story spanning over seven decades of noteworthy living and forty years of ordained ministry. She is also published in several publications, such as African Americans and the Bible: Sacred Texts and Social Textures edited by Dr. Vincent L. Wimbush, and If I Do What Spirit Says Do: Black Women, Vocation, and Community Survival published by the WISDOM Center of Spelman College. 

​As a Chief Prelate, Bishop, Senior Pastor Ex Officio, Missionary, Evangelist, Theologian, Religious Educator, and Community Activist, The Right Reverend Dr. Barbara Etta Austin Lucas honors the anointing, purpose, and favor required to live an empowered life that shows the world A More Excellent Way, for “the only thing that counts is faith expressed through love (Galatians 5:6b).”