The largest Protestant denomination in the United States voted Wednesday, June 14, to uphold an executive committee’s ouster of its second largest congregation and another smaller congregation because women had been elevated to lead and senior pastoral roles.

At the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) annual meeting in New Orleans this week, the SBC also took their first vote to clarify their position against women as pastors, with more than two-thirds of members voting to add the language to the SBC’s constitution. A second vote will need to be held at next year’s meeting for the wording to officially be added.

The credentials committee for the Nashville, Tennessee-based SBC, which makes recommendations to the executive committee on whether or not churches remain affiliated with the denomination, now has a precedent that could lead to more churches being ousted from the SBC by the executive committee.

The two ousted churches that were subject to the vote Wednesday include the southern California megachurch Saddleback Church, along with the smaller Fern Creek Baptist Church in Louisville, Kentucky. Both churches were kicked out of the SBC in February by the group’s executive committee.

The two congregations have been at the center of controversy for the SBC since 2021 after Saddleback elevated three women to pastoral roles. Currently, the lead pastor’s wife serves as a “teaching pastor.”

The second-largest SBC church’s move to elevate the women drew attention to the Kentucky church, too, which has had a woman in the role of lead pastor for three decades, according to The Associated Press.

Those churches appealed the decision, which fell on deaf ears this week as the SBC members, referred to as messengers, responded overwhelmingly with a vote to uphold their ousters. Over 88 percent voted against welcoming back Saddleback compared to 92 percent for Fern Creek.

The SBC Baptist Faith and Message from 2000, a text separate from the SBC constitution that pronounces the group’s “statement of faith,” already includes the wording that “while both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.”

The constitutional amendment would add the wording that churches are only in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC if they “affirm, appoint, or employ only men as any kind of pastor or elder as qualified by Scripture.”

“Amending the constitution–which carries a greater binding authority than the Baptist Faith & Message (2000)–would clearly define who is and is not part of the SBC,” a website explaining the amendment, proposed last year, states. “Such an amendment could add stability to our convention for decades and guard us from the drift toward liberalism.”

Saddleback founding pastor and bestselling author Rick Warren and Fern Creek pastor Linda Popham plead their case on the floor of the convention Wednesday.

“If you think every Baptist thinks like you, you’re mistaken,” Warren told messengers. “Saddleback disagrees with one word. That’s 99.9999 percent in agreement. Isn’t that close enough?”

Popham asked why her role as pastor was just now being called into question, as she has been in the role for many years.

“Satan loves dividing us. He’s tearing this convention apart,” she said. “He loves seeing religious leaders sitting on protected and padded pontifical thrones being consumed by tradition and opinions and power and non-salvific issues.”

Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, rebutted both speakers and said the issue was one of “biblical authority” and the issue threatened the “unity and harmony” of the SBC.

Both churches still remain as part of their respective state conventions, and it is unclear if they, too, will seek to oust the churches at the state level.

Warren spoke to the media following the vote, according to The Tennessean newspaper.

“The face of Southern Baptists does not look at all look like our annual meeting,” Warren said, according to the outlet.

The SBC has approximately 13.2 million members across over 47,000 churches worldwide, according to Baptist Press.

Jana J. Pruet and The Associated Press contributed to this report.