Bible Study at MABC Bring Your Questions. Find Your People. Deepen Your Faith.
At MABC, Bible study is not about having all the answers. It is about gathering in community, asking honest questions, exploring ancient wisdom, and discovering what faith might mean for our lives today.
We gather every Sunday before worship, both in person and online. So, whether you live around the corner or halfway around the world, pull up a chair. There is always room for you at the table.
Interested in joining?(this link opens in new window)Our Current Course: "The Powers"
Every Sunday from November 8-22, we will meet and discuss “The Powers,” led by Rev. Dr. Patrick B. Reyes.
What if your community could see the systems that shape our lives the way Scripture does: as Powers that were created good, have fallen, and can be redeemed? In three sessions, participants name, unmask, and engage the Powers in Scripture and in the institutions that shape our lives today, so that faith communities can join God’s work of redeeming them.
For more than two centuries, Auburn Theological Seminary has trained and equipped faith leaders to lead with love. Founded in 1818 in Auburn, New York, and now based in New York City, Auburn is a ten-generation institution forming leaders who bridge divides, pursue justice, and help heal the world.
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Few voices have shaped how people of faith understand power like Walter Wink (1935–2012), a biblical scholar, United Methodist minister, and longtime Professor of Biblical Interpretation at Auburn. Wink helped a generation see that the “principalities and powers” of the New Testament are not only ancient or otherworldly forces. They are the institutions, systems, and structures that shape human life, and each one has both an outer form and an inner spirit.
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In his acclaimed trilogy, Naming the Powers (1984), Unmasking the Powers (1986), and Engaging the Powers (1992), Wink makes a simple and hopeful claim that gives these sessions their shape: the Powers are created, the Powers have fallen, and the Powers can be redeemed. At its heart is Jesus’ “third way,” a path of active, creative nonviolence that neither flees injustice nor answers it with violence. It is a vision that continues to shape movements for justice and peace around the world.
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Through his book and program Transforming Bible Study, Wink invited ordinary people to encounter Scripture with their whole selves. Through careful questions, reflection, art, movement, and honest conversation, participants let the text read their own lives and the world around them. The goal was not only to understand the Bible better, but to be changed by it.
That approach traveled across the globe. Wink led workshops in apartheid South Africa, where his teaching on Jesus’ third way spoke directly to those resisting a violent and unjust system. It was taken up in Chiapas, Mexico, and across the Americas, in communities shaped by civil rights struggles and movements for dignity and liberation. Wherever it went, people discovered that Scripture speaks to the Powers of their own time, and that faithful, nonviolent resistance is possible.
Little Patty B. Reyes will offer the contemporary take on the powers and its relevance today – even after the midterms!
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A Chicano writer, theologian, and executive leader, Rev. Dr. Patrick B. Reyes is Auburn Theological Seminary’s 12th President and the award-winning author of Pedagogy of the Ancestors, The Purpose Gap and Nobody Cries When We Die. Patrick provides leadership on several boards in theological and higher education, and nonprofits, supporting the next generation of Black, Indigenous, and Chicano spiritual and cultural leaders. He was elected to the American Academy of Religion board of directors. He is a past board president of the Religious Education Association.
Patrick has been recognized for his service and scholarship and was inducted into the Morehouse College MLK Jr. Collegium of Scholars in 2022. The Council of Independent Colleges NetVUE selected The Purpose Gap as the Big Read for 2022-2023. Dr. Reyes holds a doctorate and master’s from Claremont School of Theology, an MDiv from Boston University School of Theology, and is a proud graduate of California State University, Sacramento.
Our previous study:
In the beginning of Autumn, Rev. Dr. Derrick Harkins led us through a four week series on “Good Trouble”.
The course explored Christian witness through the lives of four justice‑seekers who embodied “Good Trouble” in the service of love, liberation, and community.
Each week paired Scripture with the story of a modern activist, inviting us to deepen our faith and strengthen our public witness:
- Week One: Fannie Lou Hamer Testimony, Voting Rights & Prophetic Witness (Amos 5:24, Luke 1:46–55)
- Week Two: John Lewis Nonviolent Direct Action & the Beloved Community (Matthew 5:9, Romans 12:17–21)
- Week Three: Dolores Huerta Labor Justice, Coalition Building & Faithful Organizing (Isaiah 5:8, James 5:4)
- Week Four: Bayard Rustin Strategy, Inclusion & the Cost of Conscience (Acts 6:1–7, 1 Corinthians 12)
We meet Sundays at 9:45am
If you’re in New York City, we meet right next door at Hotel AKA. If you’re a newcomer, visit the front desk for information on where to meet! If you're not in NYC, complete our virtual meeting form.