Born
and raised in Northern Minnesota, Pastor Patten graduated from Concordia
College, St. Paul, Minnesota, Concordia Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri and
celebrated recently (to everyone's surprise) his 50th anniversary of ordination.
He has served as mission planter, campus pastor Navy chaplain and parish pastor
of multiracial and multcultural rural, suburban, and inner-city congregations.
Pastor Patten served as Kansas District Mission and Stewardship Director
1987-1994 and as Kansas District President, 1994-2003. Since his
retirement in 2003 he has served as missionary to congregations in the mountains
of Northern New Mexico for four years and more recently as Interim Pastor
for Zion Lutheran, a multicultural innercity congregation in El Paso, Texas for
5 years. Having flunked retirement on three separate occasions Patten presently
continues to serve Zion as Assisting Pastor and Redeemer Lutheran in Deming, New
Mexico as Vacancy Pastor..He and his wife, Marilyn live in El Paso and spend every spare moment they can with their 2 children, Alycia, Kansas
City, Kirk, Santa Fe, New Mexico, and their 6 grandchildren. Blessed beyond words - and in every conceivable way - they continue by God's grace to seek every opportunity possible to serve Father, Son, and Holy Spirit and His people with Word and Sacrament in worship, witness and work.