“This opportunity that stands before us just gives us as church planters and people outside of the South an opportunity to build bridges to share Jesus,” Harvie told messengers. “As a planter and as a person living outside the South, I beg you as Southern Baptists to help us to continue to build bridges to share Jesus.”

The descriptor “Great Commission Baptists” was approved by messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention by a vote of 53 percent to 46 percent after nearly a half-hour debate June 19 at the SBC annual meeting in New Orleans.

According to results announced Wednesday morning, 4,824 ballots were cast, 2,546 were in favor of the descriptor and 2,232 were not in favor of the descriptor. Forty-six ballots were disallowed. At the time of the vote, 7,831 messengers were registered.

The measure survived some parliamentary maneuvering.

Richard Tribble, Jr., a messenger from Emmanuel Baptist Church in Decatur, Ill., objected to the consideration of the recommendation, calling it “divisive in nature, character and application.”

Barry McCarty, the convention’s chief parliamentarian, explained that if two-thirds of the messengers voted against considering the recommendation, discussion would cease. Debate continued after the vote.

Carroll Vaughn, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Bloomfield, N.M., made a motion that the recommendation be tabled indefinitely.

“We don’t need to sit around and argue about changing a name when we’re not going to change our name anyway,” Vaughn said. “Let’s be about the Great Commission and let the world describe us as people that turn the world upside down, not as people that sit around and argue about what we’re going to call ourselves.”

Vaughn’s motion to table was ruled out of order.

In debate over the descriptor, Aaron Harvie, pastor of Riverside Community Church in Philadelphia, Pa., and a member of the task force that studied the issue, said he was sent by Southern Baptists to plant a church among people “who greatly misunderstand who Southern Baptists are.”

“This opportunity that stands before us just gives us as church planters and people outside of the South an opportunity to build bridges to share Jesus,” Harvie told messengers. “As a planter and as a person living outside the South, I beg you as Southern Baptists to help us to continue to build bridges to share Jesus.”

Susie Hawkins, a messenger from Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas, and a member of the task force, spoke from the floor to “remind the messengers that this is not a theological or doctrinal issue.

“This is an issue of preference, and our brothers and sisters in Christ in these pioneer areas in diverse communities and churches have indicated to us that this particular descriptor would be extremely helpful to them, and I would urge us all in the spirit of Romans 14 to do everything we can to advance the Kingdom of God and vote for this motion,” Hawkins said.

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