Pastor Dean Maas

Pastor Dean Maas of nearby Trinity Ministries echoed that sentiment.

"Your first reaction is, 'I don't think so,' " he said.

Then they started learning more about the program, and about their own neighborhood.It already had a psychiatric residency program, a youth services program and homes from other social organizations that had not been causing problems.

They realized that embracing the programs and working together would fit in with their efforts to clean up Forest Orchard and make it a socially and economically diverse neighborhood that was, above all, welcoming.

"It's the education that is so vitally necessary to make social change," Maas said.
...
Maas said that through the association's efforts and willingness to embrace the social organizations already at work in the community, crime has gone down, and cooperation has gone up.

"We can't afford to operate separately anymore," he said.

The association also aims to foster economic and social diversity in the area, Maas said.

Trinity Ministries operates senior housing and has plans to acquire more property for that purpose.Hillcrest Medical Center has considered working with area apartment complexes to house its interns, he said.

Maas said he can sense that the neighborhood and all the groups who have an interest in its well-being are ready to set an example.

"That's why, I think, there's all this excitement going on," he said.

Pastor Dean Maas of nearby Trinity Ministries echoed that sentiment.

"Your first reaction is, 'I don't think so,' " he said.

Then they started learning more about the program, and about their own neighborhood.It already had a psychiatric residency program, a youth services program and homes from other social organizations that had not been causing problems.

They realized that embracing the programs and working together would fit in with their efforts to clean up Forest Orchard and make it a socially and economically diverse neighborhood that was, above all, welcoming.

"It's the education that is so vitally necessary to make social change," Maas said.
...
Maas said that through the association's efforts and willingness to embrace the social organizations already at work in the community, crime has gone down, and cooperation has gone up.

"We can't afford to operate separately anymore," he said.

The association also aims to foster economic and social diversity in the area, Maas said.

Trinity Ministries operates senior housing and has plans to acquire more property for that purpose.Hillcrest Medical Center has considered working with area apartment complexes to house its interns, he said.

Maas said he can sense that the neighborhood and all the groups who have an interest in its well-being are ready to set an example.

"That's why, I think, there's all this excitement going on," he said.
...
Pastor Maas has been an integral part of bringing all of this together.

Pastor Dean Maas and Richard Ziettlow at First Evangelical Lutheran Church........Email - FLCTulsa@aol.com - Web site - www.firstlutherantulsa.org They provided a venue to perform.

?Although we?ve expanded our caring ministries to include more than cancer care, it was really the lay ministry training we were offered through Cancer Treatment Centers of America (CTCA) that was the launching pad for all we?re doing today,? said Dean Maas, pastor of First Evangelical Lutheran Church in Tulsa, OK.
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Maas explained.

Maas first learned of Our Journey of Hope® and its lay training for effective cancer ministry late last year. Thinking about the number of people touched by cancer and the special needs they have, he mobilized a coalition of Lutheran churches in Tulsa to consider the training and then scheduled it to take place in late February and early March 2005.

?Our people really appreciated the training; it was excellent. And it got us thinking about a number of other issues that touch people?s lives and how, if we had the training and were organized for ministry, we could better care for them and really affect the health of our community on all levels,? he said. ?We?re very excited with all we?ve learned. I consider it discipleship training in a way, as we?ve grown in our understanding of how to love and care for people as Jesus does.?

First Lutheran?s care ministries, composed of both clergy and laity, currently include an 11-member domestic violence team and 20-22 people who will divide up into cancer care ministry areas. ?We haven?t fielded the heart and stroke team yet, but we?re working in it,? said Maas.

In addition to the training received from outside agencies, Pastor Maas is supplementing the team?s training with in-house training on making house calls and giving home communion as well as through cancer-care seminars provided at the church through Our Journey of Hope®.

Pastor Dean W. Maas

Pastor: Dean Maas