Our staff team is a group of leaders who serve our community together as friends and equals, bringing their passion and experience from other areas to this work. Using their gifts and training, they support a community of co-ministers working together to embody Christ's transformative Kin-dom.
Staff Team
Rebecca Hewitt-Newson, Pastor
Rebecca grew up in Virginia, then studied at Elon University and Wake Forest University School of Divinity. Before coming to Emmaus Way in 2020, she was a hospital chaplain in Los Angeles and a children's minister in North Raleigh.
As a pastor at Emmaus Way, Rebecca brings passion for the ways that adults and children can learn and grow together through embracing common joys, igniting imagination, and working alongside each other to build just and loving community. Rebecca lives in South Durham with her husband, Ryan, and two children, Atticus and Isaac.
Molly Brummett WUDEL,Pastor
As co-pastor of Emmaus Way, Molly focuses her time on curating the weekly worship gathering, creating space for theological and spiritual formation, cultivating deeper community relationships, facilitating our artist residency, serving on Durham CAN's strategy team & clergy caucus, and visioning alongside staff and lead teams. In addition to pastoring at Emmaus Way, Molly lectures on dialogical preaching, and has been a teaching assistant within the Department of Homiletics at Duke Divinity. She also serves on Wake Forest University School of Divinity's Board and The Alliance of Baptist's Board.
Molly is the recipient of Baptist Women in Ministry’s Addie Davis National Award for Excellence in Preaching (2013), and is published in The World is Waiting on You: Celebrating the 50th Ordination Anniversary of Addie Davis (2014) and Believe the Women: A Journey of Liberation with Alliance of Baptists' Women (2019).
Molly lives in Durham with her husband, James, and their daughter George.
Claire Berry, Youth Minister
Claire Berry hails from Athens, Georgia, where she attended UGA and studied Art History. She moved to Durham to complete an MDiv at Duke Divinity. Since coming to Duke Div, Claire has been a children’s teacher at Emmaus Way, then our ministerial intern, and now the Youth Minister. Claire likes coffee, knitting, and hanging out with her cat, Biscuit, and husband, Zach.
Lead team
Lead Team is a governing body of lay leaders drawn from and representative of the co-ministers of Emmaus Way. Lead Team serves its fellow ministers by facilitating Emmaus Way's community and missional life, and overseeing the finances and logistics of our community.
2025 Lead Team Members
Year Three: Phil Jakes, Amanda Haas, Nidia Flores-Bayne
Year Two: Zach Hutchinson, Martín Witchger (Lay Leader), Dave Efird
Year One: Bri Barrera, Aaron Forbis-Stokes, Jesse Troy, Gayle Thomas
Artist In ResidencE
Adam Barnard has been making music since he was 14. He’s gotten to play with a wide range of artists in Texas and North Carolina. His latest projects have focused on themes of class, capitalism, and that persistent and unrelenting yearning for a more livable world. When he’s not making noise in front of folks, he’s usually hanging with his son, Townes or trying to make something cool happen at Jubilee Music Hall.