Löhe graduated from the Erlangen in 1830, but waited until 1831 before receiving a pastoral assignment to Kirchenlamitz in Upper Franconia (Northeastern Bavaria).

A similar experience ensued at Nürnberg, where, as assistant pastor of St. Egidien (St. Giles), he was often criticized for his sermons and his anti-pietistic leanings.

[1] He transferred through a series of parishes before settling in the village of Neuendettelsau, Bavaria, about 30 kilometres (19 mi) from Fürth, in 1837 after failing to gain an assignment in an urban setting.

He focused his theological studies on the Lutheran Confessions and put considerable thought into the celebration of Holy Communion as the center of congregational life.

Löhe was also noted for his ontological view of the pastoral office, which he believed existed independently of congregational call as a direct appointment from Jesus Christ through ordination, with respect to which position he found himself in opposition to C. F. W.

Löhe endured strained relations with the regional authorities over articulating a clear confessional status for the church during a period from 1848 until 1852.

Löhe also encouraged the sending of pastors to North America to assist the settlers and help with conversion of the Native American populations.

To this end, he constructed two schools to train missionaries, one of which became Wartburg College in Waverly, Iowa, and the other which is now Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana.

While Löhe is most well remembered for his encouragement of missionary activity in the United States, he also supported work in Brazil, Ukraine, Australia, and New Guinea through his Foreign Missionary Society (German: Gesellschaft für Innere und Äußere Mission im Sinne der Evangelisch-Lutherischen Kirche).