The Netzer Co-Op

Shindig: [NEW!] Time and Focus

Hey Friends,

Due to a last minute staffing schedule conflict, we will not have our Shindig Gathering this Saturday as planned. Instead we will have it Saturday, Nov. 22 as we introduce the Liturgical Season of Advent and invite you to conspire with us in expectation of the Incarnation. Expect a series of exciting, experimental opportunities.

MORE TO COME. Sorry for any inconvenience.

The Staff.

Evening Prayer - This Thursday @ 7:30pm

Join us, this Thursday,  7:30pm at the Netzer Community House (212. South Camp Street) for Evening Prayer: Setting One (a mosaic). The worship will be a simple liturgical gathering focused on The Word, Song, and Contemplation. It will be an evening of rest and simplicity.

(Click Image for Full Resolution)

Three questions to prepare you:

Who am I?
Who are we?
Who are You, God?

Tim Snyder, curator
Community Formation

AND

The Worship Creative Team

Upcoming Opportunities

The September Shindig was our only gathering this month. It was an incredible time...people were touched, stories were heard and the community was strengthened. Thank-you to all you who helped put that together from design to set-up and participating.

UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES: Click Image Above...

Inward Journey
In October we are transitioning to two (2) worship gatherings. We will still throw a Shindig once a month, but we'll also be experimenting with a simpler, contemplative-liturgical gathering. The two should give nice contrast and together provide more consistent participation in the co-op. Also, we'll be hosting one gathering each month in Seguin and the other in San Marcos. Check back for details!

Outward Journey
We're planning on a low-key Likewise Experiment. We're tentatively schedule for the fourth weekend - Saturday, Oct. 25th. Details to come.

New Organizational Structure Approved

A message to all our friends about the future organization of The Netzer Co-Op from Tim Snyder, mission developer.

9/9/2008

I hope this finds you all well. For the past two months there has been a "restructuring team" (Tim, Brianna, Jonathan and Paul) who have been working behind the scenes to design a new organizational matrix that would better serve our community as we continue in the future and to allow more space for more friends to become core members of the co-op.

Last Thursday, our monastic community gathered and adopted our New Organizational Matrix. Click HERE: Download new_matrix3.pdf to download the document.

There are three critical changes to our life together that I want to highlight for our friends and the public. First of all, there is no longer a "monastic community." The vision of that way of belonging got lost in our own expectations and the burdens of increased organization. We hope to rebirth that vision after a one-year sabbatical. Secondly, we are seeking to gather friends who would like to participate in the Covenant Community - an intentional core group of participants and leaders. For more information about that, please contact Tim [tim(at)netzerco-op.oprg]. Finally, we have created and nominated a Board of Directors who will provide oversight and direction to our organizational life together. Please prayer with us that God will guide us to the best relationships for that new board.

We are looking toward an exciting future together as we growth both in bredth and depth as a community. In the near future look for updates about our new contemplative worship experience and a second round of Likewise experiments (hosted through our new Likewise Center for Community Action).

In closing, thanks to all of those who have been a part of the monastic community and been the core of this experiment. Some you will are continuing to journey with us as part of our "new" core and others are discerning where they belong. May God bless you and keep you near in that discernment. It is with profound thanksgiving for each of you and your gifts that I will hold you in prayer. Pax.

Tim Snyder
CURATOR FOR COMMUNITY FORMATION

New Calendar!

On the left side you can now click on our Calendar Page. There you can copy our Events Calendar to your Google Calendar, get a RSS Feed and even import it to iCal (and other formats). Now you can keep up better with what we're up to. If you notice any errors, etc. please email info@netzerco-op.org and we'll take care of it!

The Co-Op featured in College Newspaper

As we roll into a new season, many of us are beginning a new academic year in our college careers. The Netzer Co-Op has long had close connections with Texas Lutheran University (Seguin, TX) and we are developing relationships at Texas State University (San Marcos, TX). The student-run newspaper at TLU, The LoneStar Lutheran, ran a full feature this week on The Netzer Co-Op. Editor Kessi Nitschke wrote the article featuring highlights from the Co-Op and an interview with Tim Snyder. If you get the chance, please visit them online and read the article...

LONESTAR LUTHERAN: "TLU Student and community seek new forms of worship."

Of course if you're on the TLU Campus or around the SW Texas Synod Office, you should pick up a print copy.

Special thanks to Kessi for the shout out and good press coverage!

Investing in Each Other...

The thing about the House Concert is the relationships. For an evening we invest in each other, we pour out our stories, gifts and graces in the hope that they might bring meaning to others. For an evening we gather in the living room to be people of life - people who are transparent enough to be honest, vulnerable enough to laugh and cry together all in the same night. For an evening we bring together a most unlikely group of friends and to encourage each other on the Way - a foretaste of the Kingdom that is both here and to come.

Thank-you Tim and Laurie for reminding us of who we are - beloved children of God and that our God is good despite the mess that we've made it. We love you two (and Ellie), peace until we meet again.

     - Friends at The Netzer Co-Op

House Concert: The Blackthorn Project

This Sunday, August 3rd at 7:30pm, The Netzer Co-Op will be partnering up with Emergent | San Antonio to host a house concert with Tim & Laurie Thornton - THE BLACKTHORN PROJECT. The evening will be a night of relationship building, musical sharing and reflection on the experiences of Tim and Laurie as artist-missionaries. The concert will be at the home of Paul (elder at the co-op) and Amy Soupiset: 127 Irvington Dr. San Antonio, 78209 (please note the misprint on the promo image - "Irvington" not Irving)

Tim & Laurie Thornton have been connected to us since the days of Intermission Worship Experiments on the campus of Texas Lutheran University. They are some of the most genuine and authentic people you have ever met.

The core of Tim Thornton and Laurie Momary Thornton’s new musical endeavor, The Blackthorn Project, is wood: a mandolin and a fiddle. The rich melodic and percussive tones resonating through these instruments create the foundation of The Blackthorn Project’s progressive acoustic music. But it’s the tenderness of Laurie’s vocals and the earthiness of Tim’s, combined with the pair’s captivating songwriting, that set the project well-apart from garden-variety folk duos.

A free-will offering is highly encouraged - please consider $10 or more if you are able.

This concert is a gift from The Netzer Co-Op to our friends in San Antonio - thanks for being connected to us and for walking with us in this journey.

If you have any question, contact Tim at 830.305.0774 or tim(at)netzerco-op.org

Workday Update

Eight friends of The Netzer Co-Op gathered this week to accomplish an incredible amount of progress on the "Third Space: Art Gallery & Music Room" - our Seguin community space. In the next week or so expect a big announcement about the space and the grand opening on September 6th. This weekend we:

1. cleaned furniture
2. deep cleaned the space - walls, floors, et. all.
3. demolished the old "dry wall/particle board" in the bathroom
4. primed the first gathering room & entry way

In all about 30 man hours were clocked in to complete the initial "flip" of the space. It was hard work, but we had fun with the sense of accomplishment.

Three Quick Updates

From the Staff...

Hey Friends,

Much has been happening behind the scenes at The Co-Op and we wanted let you know about three special things that are going on...

Renovation Workdays
Over the next six weeks we're going to be putting some serious work into our upstairs space - set to become an art gallery and music room. This space will also serve the worship life of the community. We are looking for 10-12 volunteers for each of the following days. Email Tim at tim@netzerco-op.org to RSVP!

July 26/27 | 9am start - until we're done.
Aug. 1/2 | TBA
Aug. 15/16/17 | TBA

Please consider helping out and bring friends!

Staff to Attend Annual Mission Developers Training!
Brianna, Michael and Tim will be in Chicago August 7-13 to participate in developer's training through our relationships with the ELCA. They will be creating a plan for growth over the next year and they will work towards that with a ministry review in December. Praise God that partners from the surrounding community stepped forward - thank you to Bill and Elwanda Newbold, Bill Nobles and Texas Lutheran University for providing the funds for travel.

Please pray for them - we'll be blogging together during that trip - watch for updates.

Tim Snyder, community developer, To Begin Graduate Study / Ordination Prep
Just in the last two weeks we learned that Tim was accepted to Luther Seminary to begin graduate studies in their Master of Divinity Program. Tim will be applying to be a part of the Distributed Learning Pilot Program to allow him to remain with Netzer Co-Op. This program will create collaborative opportunities for the co-op...in some ways we'll all be entering seminary study together as our community becomes a lab for ministry preparation.

Tim has also begun the process of candidacy for ordained ministry in the ELCA. Several interviews and review processes will be happening over the next few months.

Please pray for Tim as he begins this new journey!

Grace & Peace,

THE STAFF