The Motley Magpie

 ...bringing out new treasures, as well as old...

One of the unstated goals of this blog is to highlight Lutheran content and thought. To that end, the initial inspiration - indeed, the very name of the website - came from the Motley Magpie. The Magpie was a quarterly journal ran for three years by the Berg Brothers (John and Peter) and James Frey, who, at the inception of the Magpie, were all pastors in the Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod. The Berg Brothers colloquialized with the LCMS, while Pr Frey remained in the WELS.

The magpies published a total of twelve journals critical in many cases of the WELS and modern practices. The general themes revolved around communion, fellowship, liturgical practice and adiaphora, church growth, and the doctrine of the ministry. There are also a mix of sermons and guest articles.

The website went dead many years ago, and most of the articles could be found via the WaybackMachine. The remaining articles were found via a request on a Lutheran forum where someone had wisely cached them. 

While not my first exposure to issues in the synod, their synthesis was formative in my thought, and I hope to expound on those issues in this blog.