The missionary Justus Falckner oversaw expansion starting in the early 18th century, resulting in 14 congregations under his care.
[6] The New York Ministerium was a German-speaking body until 1806, when, after a bitter controversy, English was adopted as the official language.
[3][6] In his 1804 revision of the catechism that Kunze had published, Quitman removed the item that treated the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Lord's Supper.
[2][8] That decision, along with the Ministerium's reluctance to endorse revivals, led its Western Conference to withdraw and form the Hartwick Synod in 1830.
[9] After the Hartwick Synod was formed, the New York Ministerium became more conservative and added a formal subscription of the Lutheran Confessions as "substantially correct" to its constitution.
[8] In 1859, a group of seven English-speaking pastors and their congregations withdrew from the Ministerium and, in 1861, formed the Evangelical Lutheran Synod of New Jersey.
[8][10] Another group, which included St. Matthew's Lutheran Church in New York City, was even more conservative than the Steimle Synod and became antagonistic toward the Ministerium.
[11] In 1888, the Ministerium gained control of Wagner College, which had been founded in 1883 to prepare boys for seminary training.