Staff

Staff

Nathan Oates

Nathan is committed to the restoration of the local church. With his family and a few good friends, he started Emmaus in 2005. Nathan’s formal education focused on the history and practice of spiritual formation. With 20 years of pastoral experience, he leads and teaches toward practical, meaningful transformation.

Rich Lester

Rich is passionate about God’s Kingdom, his family, the art of leadership, and keeping fit. Rich shepherds Emmaus by providing organizational leadership and running the day-to-day operations of the church’s ministries. Previously, Rich served as a missionary in Ethiopia with his family, has now been in ministry for more than a decade, and holds a Masters Degree in Leadership.

Angela Henning

Angela is captivated by stories. The stories that she loves the most involve the restoration of people’s lives. Angela’s formal education includes a Master’s degree in literature. Previously, she taught college for 10 years.  She recently finished her course of study for ordination to become a minister in the Church of the Nazarene. 

Courtney Alves

Courtney is driven to empower and support people, especially youth. After teaching high school math and completing her bachelors degree, she stepped further into ministry and her role at Emmaus. As she transitioned from working with students in an academic setting, her passion and goals remained the same; showing youth the love of Jesus.

Melissa Lester

Melissa was born and raised here in California and has lived in the area most of her life with the exception of that time she moved to Texas and later on, Ethiopia. Since the age of 14 she has been leading worship in a wide range of settings and served in staff roles as a worship director since early adulthood. Overseas missions has long been a passion and she has traveled to over 20 countries on 6 continents for this…

Leah McKinney

Leah has spent her life committed to God and the local church. Her years of following God has allowed her to lead short-term missions’ teams, serve in youth ministry, Christian non-profit work, and church planting.  Her heart is to love God, serve people and build community wherever she is.  She is a mom to three and holds a bachelor’s degree in Political Science.