I have spent the past two nights in a “Boutique Hoel” in Ann Arbor. I had to look up the word to see what I should expect. AI tells me “it is a French word for a small, fashionable shop selling high-end or specialized goods, often with an air of exclusivity” that has expanded in various industries (like “boutique hotels”).
And I must admit it was not anything like the Holiday Inns of my youth. The clock radio has blue tooth connect-ability. The toilet has a remote control. I am not sure what it does, but I have found that every time the lid is lifted a light comes on inside the toilet. The bathroom also features a “Dazzling Shower and Magical Mirror”. The shower is nice, but not that different from the one we have at the cottage (perhaps we should start calling it our “boutique cottage”). I have not taken the time to connect my phone to the “Magical Mirror.”
The room is modern and comfortable. The space is well used. It has everything I need … except for one thing. There are no (that is zero) charging stations. Every single electrical connection is a simple old three-plug outlet. This is something I did not anticipate, thus I cannot charge my iPad and phone at the same time. In my way of thinking, in today’s world, some type of charging station should be standard equipment … especially at a “Boutique Hotel”.
I wonder if congregations will ever consider focusing upon become “boutique churches”? Their emphasis would be upon being small, fashionable, and exclusive. One might specialize in the high-tech experience they offer … sights and sounds from screens and professional praise bands. Another could have more of a “retro feel” … an expanded liturgy with cantors and chanting, wooden kneelers … they might even add incense, genuflecting, and bells ringing as the host is raised.
These different congregations would each serve niche markets. They would serve particular parts of the community … if (in my mind’s eyes) they would also factor in some words of our Savior given to us through St. Paul: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I have nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up by body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth., Love bears all things, hopes all things , endures all things. Love never ends.” (1 Corinthians 13.1-8) And, of course you know, “God is love.”(1 John 4.8) Without God’s self-sacrificing, always forgiving and understanding love (that puts the best construction on everything, as Luther suggests), those congregations would only be contributing to the confusing noise of this world.
And, of course, congregations are made up of people … people like you and me! So I must ask myself, “Where am I on God’s love meter as I look at people who think differently than me?” Ouch!
And all of a sudden I am thinking that instead of “boutique experience” (which is what God continually gives us – whether we recognize or appreciate it or not – through his grace), today’s headline should have been “Lord, have mercy on me a sinner”
