Elizabeth (Liz, Miss Liz) Emis (she/her/hers)

Minister of Education for First United Methodist Church in Omaha, Neb. 

Liz creates spaces for wonder, plurality, and expansive, practical theology with and for children, youth and families. Recently recommended to the Board of Ordained Ministry for Provisional membership, commissioning and license for the ministry of a Deacon, Liz considers all life spiritually stirred and rooted in curiosity. She is a practical, liberative, childist theologian who accompanies humans as they conspire to advance access to their full agency from birth. She employs social and emotional intelligence processes for spiritual development. Education for Liz is about meaning-making and identity nourishing, helping humans embrace their role in co-creating social holiness. 

She will graduate in May ’25 from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary with a Master of Divinity degree concentrating in Childist Studies, Education & Ethics. She focuses on process and ecosystem, co-creating learning spaces and curricula for Illustrated Ministries, GenOn Ministries and the Stead Center for Ethics & Values. Liz has a deep interfaith call. From 2022 to 2024, she was the Curricula Chair and Camp Counselor for the children’s interfaith summer camp Friendship Camp of Central Arkansas. In 2023, she launched Friend Camp NWA, the first interfaith children’s summer camp in Northwest Arkansas for 2nd-6th graders. As Camp Director, she brought together children, youth, and faith leaders in the Baha’i, Buddhist, Christian, Explorer (no stated faith), Hindu, Indigenous, Islamic, and Jewish traditions to build peace through discovery, friendship, and social justice and solidarity. Liz holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Maryland College Park in Print Journalism and Government & Politics. She also worked in product development, marketing, public relations, and communication for Tyson Foods, and was a staff writer for The Boston Globe, the Baltimore Sun, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. 

She and her spouse John learn from their two children, Jackson (11) and Will (9). You can find her playing and pushing for spaces of belonging all over the church!