Image
About
Deaconess Cara Patton serves as coordinator for LCMS Worship in the Office of National Mission. Her responsibilities include supporting the International Center (IC) chaplain and director of Worship in his work by coordinating IC chapel services and events, providing program support for resources and initiatives developed by LCMS Worship, and providing spiritual care to the IC community, in conjunction with the chaplain. Patton previously served as coordinator for LCMS Recognized Service Organizations (RSOs) for eight years, a role in which she built relationships between RSOs and LCMS districts, congregations and other partners; assisted in evaluating and processing RSO status applications; and performed site visits and assessed RSO efforts to foster the mission and ministry of the LCMS.Patton is a 2013 graduate of Concordia University Chicago, River Forest, Ill., where she earned a Bachelor of Arts in theology with the LCMS Deaconess Certification. She minored in biblical languages. She served her deaconess internship from July 2012 to May 2013 as coordinator of The Bridge Ministry, an inner-city outreach ministry to the homeless operated by the Federation of Lutheran Churches of Cincinnati and Vicinity. Her deaconess student fieldwork experience included visitation and spiritual care in congregational and institutional settings both at her fieldwork congregation, the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Apostles in Melrose Park, Ill., and at Voice of Care, an LCMS RSO focused on providing visitation and spiritual care to individuals with disabilities living within institutions in the greater Chicago area. She earned a Master of Arts in nonprofit management from Washington University in St. Louis in 2023.