Staff

Hello, I’m Pastor Elizabeth Miller Edmiston.

I am a Christian, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a United Methodist.  

I am also the chief builder of wildlife habitat shelters at Anvil Farm, which is where my husband, Jeff, and my son, Jake, and our three dogs, Brick, Cookie and Duchess live.  

I am originally from a small town in arkansas, that is almost exactly halfway between Little Rock AR and Memphis TN, on I-40.  The town is Brinkley, and it’s where I grew up, in the United Methodist Church.  It’s where I first recieved my call to the ministry.  It’s where my brother and I served as acolytes, where my mother taught sunday school and where my father served as an usher.  We were one of those “every Sunday” families.  We had a spot on our pew where we sat every Sunday.  We attended Sunday school faithfully.  In fact, I have 14 years of consecutive years of perfect attendance in Sunday school.  And when I got older, I taught Vacation Bible School, which is when I received my call to the pulpit and order.

But of course, we all grow up, if everything goes well.  I grew up and attended college in Fayetteville AR.  If you ever need someone to call the Razorbacks, call me up.  I can do it- my dad taught me how when I was 3 years old.  But anyway, there’s a lot more to college than football.  I met my husband while I attended the U of A, and we have been married since August 1988.  I graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education, with a minor in Literature.  

We (Jeff and I) have a son, Jake, and a daughter, Gracie.  Gracie is married to Beau, and they are the parents of our two grandsons, RB (BoBo if you are the MoMo) and J. We moved all around the south with Jeff’s job, as a logistics guy with some of the big companies in transportation.  We landed in Texas in 1999, and we’re still here.

I attended seminary at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, and graduated with my Master’s in Divinty (MDiv) in 2022.  I loved seminary, I loved all the subjects I studies with one exception, the languages.  I loved what I learned while trying to become adept at reading ancient Greek.  To get to delve into the words, to learn the meanings behind the meanings, to be able to read deeper than just what the words say, is wonderful.  To have to actually read Greek?  Let’s just say I am not gifted in the languages of the Bible.

I like to think my preaching style mixes storytelling and common sense faith and theology. I read the scriptures that usually are from the Narrative Lectionary, and I pray.   I research my scripture texts each week by reading the scriptures, the commentaries, articles from peer reviewed theological publications and books and I pray.  I look for examples i can pull from my own life (or my friends and family’s lives, with names changed to protect the innocent), and I spend a lot of time thinking and I pray, praying and thinking about what I can share that might help someone take a step forward in their faith journey.  I really believe that no one should ever leave church without being encouraged, loved, and seen.  If we can do those things as humans, I believe it is easier to understand that God does those same things for us, every second of our lives, before and beyond today.  

This is the second pulpit I have been appointed to serve.  Decker UMC is a small congregation with great hopes.  We hope to serve the world in ways that leave no doubt as to who we follow.  

We hope to make sure the area surrounding us, and our online community know they are the well loved children of God.

We hope we always do right, in the eyes of God, but we realize sometimes we are going to fail.  And we are going to ask for forgiveness, from God, and from anyone who we fail to serve in our mission.  

And I personally promise to do my level best to be the Salt and Light Christ told us to be.  

So, you take good care of yourself and those around you, and know that you are always welcome to join us here, online or in person.

Salt & Light

Pastor Elizabeth MIller Edmiston