Lee Patmore

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Areas of Teaching at IABC

--NT Greek 
--Biblical Text
--Expository Preaching

Education

--IABC Senior Teaching Fellow (STF), 2025
--IABC since 2012
--2 Years at Bible College
--University of the Trenches (see personal statement)

My Story Begins

Isaiah 50:4–5 “The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary. He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught. The Sovereign Lord has opened my ears and I have not been rebellious, I have not drawn back…”

I identify with that line from the prophet. I have no PHD’s or MDiv’s to attach to my name. I have great respect for those who do, but that hasn’t been my journey. I was captured by Christ in 1981, and he refuses to let me go. The good news of Christ won my heart, and he’s been wooing me ever since. An evangelist on the streets of Edmonton pitched me the gospel with a line that was familiar to me from a Cheech and Chong LP. “Would you like to hear the word of God?” I smiled and took the bait. He invited me to church; I never went. He told me to buy a bible; I did, and I haven’t been able to set it down since. At nineteen Jesus blew me away and he still does today.

I am the son of a mixed farmer who taught me more than I know. Only later in life did I realize the gifts my dad gave me growing up. I used to think my strong work ethic and my ability to fix things with my hands was something I acquired by my own strength. I now realize my dad gave me those things. He also taught me how to look at my fellow human beings, particularly those with less or those in the minority. I never remember him passing by a hitchhiker without stopping to pick him up. My dad is in his nineties now and I deeply cherish our weekly phone calls.

Journey

I began my career as an auto body mechanic, working at a start to finish shop, and excelled at it. I owned my own shop for 2 years and worked in management in another for 17.

At 45 I discerned a call into ministry. At the peak of my earning potential, I traded it in for a pulpit. I wanted to give the best years of my life to Him who gave His best to me. Some of my richest and most rewarding moments of my life I experienced during the 11 years I spent ministering to a small-town church in Alberta.

I did take a little schooling back in the early 80’s – 2 years towards a 3-year bible degree, but most of my schooling has been in the trenches. In the later years of my ministry, I began to do quite a few funerals in the community in which I grew up. I didn’t grow up in a religious home and neither did most of our neighbors. It was deeply meaningful to me to be asked to meet with the grieving and then to say a few words about the loved one. This was sacred territory for me. I found I was able to connect the story of Christ to the lives of the deceased in a way that was respectful and real to the grieving. It was odd to have people come up to me after a funeral service and ask me if I would do their funeral when the time came.

In 2018 I resigned from my preaching ministry. This was a very difficult decision, but at the same time I had experienced a deep sense of God’s direction in the process. I remember, vividly, the day after my resignation travelling to Regina, Saskatchewan to go to a quarterly meeting with several of my preaching associates from our fellowship. There, in the parking lot of the Glen Elm Church of Christ I sat in my car, praying before the meeting. In that moment I expressed to God how I could not imagine, in light of my overwhelming sense of the leading of the Holy Spirit that that I had experienced in my resignation, that he wouldn’t provide me with an opportunity to continue using my gifts in his service.

That confidence was challenged by how my story unfolded from there. I applied, almost immediately, for another position in Alberta but they chose someone else. And then another opportunity came up but it didn’t seem like a good fit. My wife and I explored other options – church planting among them – but in the end determined this was not for us.

Unemployed I went farming for the spring with my daughter and her husband. There, in my early morning times of reflection I would walk to a crossroads and stand looking at the options, a visual for where I was in life. I longed to use my gifts of preaching and teaching – that was one road. I also had experienced in my former ministry a remarkable series of events wherein I found myself working with a handful of people who had suffered abuse as children – my Wounded Heart group – another road. And my experience with IABC had been such a sustaining and life-giving experience for me throughout my ministry that I couldn’t imagine this not being a part of my future. Three roads before me, one leading back to where I was. Over the month or so that I spent at this crossroad day after day I felt that somehow all three of these passions were part of my future.

I returned to Lloydminster after the crop was in and while my wife and I sought to discern the road ahead I ended up back in the Autobody shop that I had worked at before I got into ministry 11 years earlier. This much needed source of income was a blessing and permitted us to spend extended time reflecting on our future. In the end we felt called to move to the Saskatoon area to work in a nonofficial role with a church we had connections with there.

This was a blessing for us, and soon we were asked to serve as one of the shepherding couples for the congregation. This was an incredible honor but at the same time was not satisfying my longing to use my gifts of teaching and preaching more fully in His service. 7 years passed in the Saskatoon area; I was back in the Autobody trade and doing well at it. Yet the memories of that prayer in in the parking lot in Regina and the time spent at the crossroads refused to be silenced. Then one day, while contemplating what retirement would look like I expressed the hope to my wife that perhaps in retirement I could find a preaching job somewhere. The next day, she ran a google search and found a hit for position that was open at the Glen Elm church in Regina.

That was in May. It is now December. That prayer in the parking lot from 7 years earlier has been answered. I now park in that same parking lot and serve in that church. Wow… There have been a lot of “Wow!” moments these past few months. The threefold longing at the crossroads is being realized. I am thrilled! “Lord, here I am. Take me where you want me to be. Work in me the gifts you have cultivated for your glory. Only let me be faithful.”

IABC

One of the great gifts and constants that I have experienced in my life over the years has been my time spent with Gary Collier and my brothers and sisters at IABC. Thanks to this experience I have learned how to approach our sacred texts with a deep respect and have acquired a skill set that enables me to handle them carefully. Gary has been a mentor par excellence. Relentlessly he has called me higher. Always encouraging, never afraid to challenge me, he has demonstrated the faithfulness of Christ to me.

Sacred Texts, Heart, & Writing

I love our sacred texts. I delight in seeking the heart of God through these ancient writings that continue to speak into our lives today. Nothing thrills me more than diving deep into our sacred texts. Conversing with these ancient authors as they wrestled with God always revives my faith and fuels my capacity to minister the gospel to those God puts in front of me.

As a preacher I typically manuscript my sermons, it is my process of preparation even when my habit is to preach the message from the heart. The practice of writing drives my message into the deepest part of me and equips me to communicate it effectively and passionately to the church.

This practice has fueled a desire to engage more fully in the art of writing. There are a couple of books on the back burner of my mind that need to make it to print. Luke-Acts has been a favorite dwelling place for me for the past 7 years. It’s time… “Lord, in your mercy, take me where you want me to go on this front.”

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