McCormick, Elizabeth

Elizabeth McCormick is a missionary with the General Board of Global Ministries of The United Methodist Church, serving as a mission advocate for the South Central Jurisdiction. She was commissioned in May 2016. Her husband, David, is also a missionary. She previously served at Chicuque Rural Hospital in Mozambique. She and her family reside in North Little Rock, Arkansas. 

Elizabeth is from Shreveport, Louisiana, where she is a member of the Grace Community United Methodist Church in the Louisiana Annual Conference. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in neuroscience from Centenary College, Shreveport, and a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Louisiana at Monroe. She became a board-certified geriatric pharmacist in 2016. 

She has worked as an outpatient clinical pharmacist at Overton Brooks VA Medical Center, Shreveport, and as a pharmacy manager for the Brookshire Grocery Company. Earlier, she was a pharmacist and intern with Walgreens. 

Growing up in a Christian family, Elizabeth said she has never “experienced life without some knowledge of the teachings of Christ.” Yet, as she found her identity apart from that of her parents, she learned to separate faith from the rest of life. 

“It did not take long for me to discover that a life apart from Christ left me untethered and wanting more,” Elizabeth said. “I may have chosen to ignore Christ for a season, but Christ never forgot me. Thankfully, God took me from being a ‘good Christian’ to experiencing the fullness of life through Jesus. I am called to seek justice, love broadly, care for God’s creation and be in community with others. Once my faith journey was shifted from duty, I began to see opportunities all around me to live like Christ.” 

The idea of serving in Africa as a missionary was actually placed in her mind as a child when a missionary serving there spoke in her church. Years later, the thought reemerged when Elizabeth became active in volunteer mission journeys. 

After marrying, Elizabeth and David talked about leaving their comfortable lives to enter mission service, but it was not a choice embraced at that time. “Once we started a family,” Elizabeth recalled, “I thought God had taken that calling away, but after a second child, I heard the calling stronger than ever.” Local church small-group studies removed any doubt. “God used those studies,” she said, “to set a fire in my bones for the mission field. It became a calling we could no longer ignore or rationalize our way out of.” 

Elizabeth is deeply grateful to serve as a missionary through The United Methodist Church. “It has grown my faith and changed how I see the world,” she said. “I know that I can trust God to be present and care for us, no matter where we are serving. My Mozambican community taught 

me the beauty of interdependence and needing one another. It points to the fullness of God’s kin-dom. I want to share that with others.” 

Elizabeth and David have two children, Eva and Annie.