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hqkennedy-blog · 4 years

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* breathes .. i wish me and introductions could be the best of friends but , it seems like they hate my guts and in return i hate theirs asdfj . hi hello you pretty people , im gi and well ?? i’ve had my eye on this group for a minute .. so my excitement level ? through the roof . kennedy is a revamped ? ish ?? muse who i cannot wait to dig deeper into and develop . on that note ? if you want to know a little more about her , just keep on swimming ,,, i mean reading . and afterwards i demand you love her and plot with me ( pretty please )

ʻ / let me introduce you to a prized member of our co-ed dance team , kennedy leavitt . this cis female scorpio has been a student at our institution for six years and is currently a twenty year old sophomore . through the halls , she has always reminded me of madison beer , but there is always more than meets the eye , like the fact that she covered for her best friend by announcing to the cops that the drugs they found in their car did not belong to them but to her instead knowing her father would be able to make any and all consequences disappear which he did but followed by him forbidding her from seeing them anymore . coral cape has made their future just as bright as their smile , i assure you . ʼ

* p r o s o p o g r a p h y

trigger warning !!! mention of cancer !!

stranded at the age of six , a stuffed elephant in hand and confusion lingering on skin . small glimpses of a angelic features to ease the never ending tears that swam in honeyed hues . too young to understand the concept that she had not been stranded due to lack of love nor a lack of want but because of the inability to care for the small child . a clock that was running out , and a vengeful cancer that did not care for the butterfly kisses or midnight snacks as they watched the stars . a child needing their mother meant nothing to such a disease .

was put , or more so forced , in the care of her father . the man who looked down at her with guilt dancing in his hues and cold features that made her want to flinch . the reality was , olly leavitt originally wanted nothing to do with the life he helped create . fell into the cliche category of the rich man sleeping with his twenty something assistant getting her pregnant only to try to pay her to get rid out of the fetus and when that failed ? he paid her to never spill that it was his . and louise did , she raised the ebullient baby for six years until she realized six years was all she would be able to spend with her . and then she fell at the feet of a selfish man she once loved and begged him to take their baby under his care , to give her everything she could not do .

a public figure , drenched in sovereignty and affluence . was in no position to deny a child of his , especially when that child had a dead mother . used it and kenny in his advantage , concealing his own guilt and projecting disgust . magazine covers and interviews about the tragic sob story , kissed her cheek in front of the cameras and spoke with such empathy when ears were tuned in ... but in private ? created distance and threw money at her as though there was a number he could hit to fill the void she had .

has ‘ it all ‘ , so outsiders say . bat their eyes and make comments about how she’s destined to do great things . lives in that beautiful and just so expensive house , and she drives the 2020 lamborghini , and have you seen her feed ? captivating smiles as she poses with her best friends , and i heard she just took a family vacation to monaco . got that dress made personally for her by versace , and doesn’t she got to that prestigious school ? the privilege of being privilege , she should shut up and just be happy she is where she is . broken hearts heal ... and if it doesn’t ? eventually that cold feeling becomes a friend .

* r u m i n a t i o n

laughter falls from her mouth like its her own language . ebullience , the chatter bug that has the ability to ramble until she’s threatened ( by an older brother of course ) . affectionate , has digits that are constantly reaching for another hand to hold . a habit of letting fingertips dance across bare skin , or a head that constantly needs a shoulder to lean on . warmth , makes her feel not so lonely . is in her head too much , the type of girl that stares at the night sky and wonders why the stars make her feel so small . inherited her fathers impulsive ways and her mother’s trait to love even when it hurts . triggers that silence in her that desperately holds on to people to make her feel something , and when that’s not enough her careless and adrenaline seeking nature kicks in to cause chaos make her feel alive . fears people leaving her just like she see’s her father in every flaw she has . toxic in the way she has the urge to pull back every time she gets too close . uses gregariousness to hide her greatest heart ache of feeling disposable . selfish in wanting to leave a mark on everyone . dramatic like she should of dropped out of college and ran to broadway instead . loyal like she’s trying to make up for every betrayal you have ever had .. emotional enough to crawl into your lap ( intoxicated ) and cry about all of her worries . silly to the point you can’t help but laugh before letting , ‘ what’s wrong with you ‘ fall from your lips . so captivating you want to drown in her no matter the consequences that follow .

* h e a d c a n o n s - i s h

has a obsession with nails , long acrylic’s so pretty you could cry .

always has her toes painted , her go to color being white swears it makes her feel more elegant .

did cheer leading and only settled on dance because it felt most familiar to her though she did play soccer for three years .

could eat waffle fries for the rest of her life and never complain .

has three cars , and a bit of a obsession with them in general .

eats pineapple like it’s her life support .

is musically talented , not just vocally but plays the piano too . her mother taught her .

has three half siblings , and she would take a bullet for any of them .

is close to her step mom , and without her ? would of tried to get removed from her fathers custody the minute she was old enough to do so .

has a aunt on her mother side that lives close by , she often spends time at her place ..

* w a n t e d c o n n e c t i o n s

ex best friend , the person who her secret is related to . i assumed she would have just cut them off instead of telling them what’s really going on , but of course we can work that all out .

current best friend , the cristina to her meredith . one of the few who really knows kenny . platonic soulmates .

partner in crime , they enable one another .. there’s no way around it but despite their bad habits they have a solid friendship . if one of them needed bail money the other would be there ( sometimes right beside them )

the friend group , who doesn’t love a little squad goal moment . they’re just cute and close friends who are always with each other .

childhood / family friend .

tutor(s) .

first love .

on and off friendship .

toxic relationship .

teammates .

friends with benefits ( who sweaaaar they dont have feelings for each other )

ex friends with benefits .

close friends .

friends who are drifting apart .

will they wont they .

unlikely friends .

confidant .

people who she doesnt like and people who dont like her .

anything forbidden ( friendship or relationship )

honestly ?? anything and everything please .

#capecoral:intro #tw: mention of cancer #let me apologize ahead of time for this MESS

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dandybernabe · 7 years

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By Rachel Held Evans April 30, 2015

Rachel Held Evans is a blogger and the author of “Searching for Sunday: Loving, Leaving, and Finding the Church.”

Bass reverberates through the auditorium floor as a heavily bearded worship leader pauses to invite the congregation, bathed in the light of two giant screens, to tweet using #JesusLives. The scent of freshly brewed coffee wafts in from the lobby, where you can order macchiatos and purchase mugs boasting a sleek church logo. The chairs are comfortable, and the music sounds like something from the top of the charts. At the end of the service, someone will win an iPad.

This, in the view of many churches, is what millennials like me want. And no wonder pastors think so. Church attendance has plummeted among young adults. In the United States, 59 percent of people ages 18 to 29 with a Christian background have, at some point, dropped out. According to the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, among those of us who came of age around the year 2000, a solid quarter claim no religious affiliation at all, making my generation significantly more disconnected from faith than members of Generation X were at a comparable point in their lives and twice as detached as baby boomers were as young adults.

In response, many churches have sought to lure millennials back by focusing on style points: cooler bands, hipper worship, edgier programming, impressive technology. Yet while these aren’t inherently bad ideas and might in some cases be effective, they are not the key to drawing millennials back to God in a lasting and meaningful way. Young people don’t simply want a better show. And trying to be cool might be making things worse.

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You’re just as likely to hear the words “market share” and “branding” in church staff meetings these days as you are in any corporate office. Megachurches such as Saddleback in Lake Forest, Calif., and Lakewood in Houston have entire marketing departments devoted to enticing new members. Kent Shaffer of ChurchRelevance.com routinely ranks the best logos and Web sites and offers strategic counsel to organizations like Saddleback and LifeChurch.tv.

Increasingly, churches offer sermon series on iTunes and concert-style worship services with names like “Vine” or “Gather.” The young-adult group at Ed Young’s Dallas-based Fellowship Church is called Prime, and one of the singles groups at his father’s congregation in Houston is called Vertical. Churches have made news in recent years for giving away tablet computers , TVs and even carsat Easter. Still, attendance among young people remains flat.

[How to take Christ out of Christianity]

Recent research from Barna Group and the Cornerstone Knowledge Network found that 67 percent of millennials prefer a “classic” church over a “trendy” one, and 77 percent would choose a “sanctuary” over an “auditorium.” While we have yet to warm to the word “traditional” (only 40 percent favor it over “modern”), millennials exhibit an increasing aversion to exclusive, closed-minded religious communities masquerading as the hip new places in town. For a generation bombarded with advertising and sales pitches, and for whom the charge of “inauthentic” is as cutting an insult as any, church rebranding efforts can actually backfire, especially when young people sense that there is more emphasis on marketing Jesus than actually following Him. Millennials “are not disillusioned with tradition; they are frustrated with slick or shallow expressions of religion,” argues David Kinnaman, who interviewed hundreds of them for Barna Group and compiled his research in “You Lost Me: Why Young Christians Are Leaving Church . . . and Rethinking Faith.”

My friend and blogger Amy Peterson put it this way: “I want a service that is not sensational, flashy, or particularly ‘relevant.’ I can be entertained anywhere. At church, I do not want to be entertained. I do not want to be the target of anyone’s marketing. I want to be asked to participate in the life of an ancient-future community.”

Millennial blogger Ben Irwin wrote: “When a church tells me how I should feel (‘Clap if you’re excited about Jesus!’), it smacks of inauthenticity. Sometimes I don’t feel like clapping. Sometimes I need to worship in the midst of my brokenness and confusion — not in spite of it and certainly not in denial of it.”

When I left church at age 29, full of doubt and disillusionment, I wasn’t looking for a better-produced Christianity. I was looking for a truer Christianity, a more authentic Christianity: I didn’t like how gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people were being treated by my evangelical faith community. I had questions about science and faith, biblical interpretation and theology. I felt lonely in my doubts. And, contrary to popular belief, the fog machines and light shows at those slick evangelical conferences didn’t make things better for me. They made the whole endeavor feel shallow, forced and fake.

While no two faith stories are exactly the same, I’m not the only millennial whose faith couldn’t be saved by lacquering on a hipper veneer. According to Barna Group, among young people who don’t go to church, 87 percent say they see Christians as judgmental, and 85 percent see them as hypocritical. A similar study found that “only 8% say they don’t attend because church is ‘out of date,’ undercutting the notion that all churches need to do for Millennials is to make worship ‘cooler.’ ”

In other words, a church can have a sleek logo and Web site, but if it’s judgmental and exclusive, if it fails to show the love of Jesus to all, millennials will sniff it out. Our reasons for leaving have less to do with style and image and more to do with substantive questions about life, faith and community. We’re not as shallow as you might think.

If young people are looking for congregations that authentically practice the teachings of Jesus in an open and inclusive way, then the good news is the church already knows how to do that. The trick isn’t to make church cool; it’s to keep worship weird.

You can get a cup of coffee with your friends anywhere, but church is the only place you can get ashes smudged on your forehead as a reminder of your mortality. You can be dazzled by a light show at a concert on any given weekend, but church is the only place that fills a sanctuary with candlelight and hymns on Christmas Eve. You can snag all sorts of free swag for brand loyalty online, but church is the only place where you are named a beloved child of God with a cold plunge into the water. You can share food with the hungry at any homeless shelter, but only the church teaches that a shared meal brings us into the very presence of God.

What finally brought me back, after years of running away, wasn’t lattes or skinny jeans; it was the sacraments. Baptism, confession, Communion, preaching the Word, anointing the sick — you know, those strange rituals and traditions Christians have been practicing for the past 2,000 years. The sacraments are what make the church relevant, no matter the culture or era. They don’t need to be repackaged or rebranded; they just need to be practiced, offered and explained in the context of a loving, authentic and inclusive community.

My search has led me to the Episcopal Church, where every week I find myself, at age 33, kneeling next to a gray-haired lady to my left and a gay couple to my right as I confess my sins and recite the Lord’s Prayer. No one’s trying to sell me anything. No one’s desperately trying to make the Gospel hip or relevant or cool. They’re just joining me in proclaiming the great mystery of the faith — that Christ has died, Christ has risen, and Christ will come again — which, in spite of my persistent doubts and knee-jerk cynicism, I still believe most days.

One need not be an Episcopalian to practice sacramental Christianity. Even in Christian communities that don’t use sacramental language to describe their activities, you see people baptizing sinners, sharing meals, confessing sins and helping one another through difficult times. Those services with big screens and professional bands can offer the sacraments, too.

But I believe that the sacraments are most powerful when they are extended not simply to the religious and the privileged, but to the poor, the marginalized, the lonely and the left out. This is the inclusivity so many millennials long for in their churches, and it’s the inclusivity that eventually drew me to the Episcopal Church, whose big red doors are open to all — conservatives, liberals, rich, poor, gay, straight and even perpetual doubters like me.

Church attendance may be dipping, but God can survive the Internet age. After all, He knows a thing or two about resurrection.

Twitter: @rachelheldevans

#millenial #church #worship #christian #catholic #God #Jesus #Holy Spirit

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