NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- Some Southern Baptists worry that their denomination's name still carries the stigma of a 19th-century split with northern Baptists over slavery. Others who fought hard to build the brand don't want to see the name go.
So the idea to add the description of "Great Commission Baptists" to the name of the Southern Baptist Convention might be a compromise that excites almost none of the 16 million who make up the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
The "Great Commission" description endorsed by the SBC's executive committee on Tuesday would be strictly optional.
The name still must be voted on by delegates at the annual convention this summer. Southern Baptist churches are independent, and many of them don't have "Southern" in their names, anyway.
Some conservative church members don't want the option: Wiley Drake, pastor of First Southern Baptist Church in Buena Park, Calif., vowed to fight even an alternate name. Others, like the Rev. Joseph Lyles, said the alternative name could help in reaching out to African-Americans in particular. Lyles leads the Fort Foote Baptist Church in Fort Washington, Md., and is a former president of the SBC's African-American Fellowship.
"Sometimes among some other African-American pastors, they find out you're a Southern Baptist and they look at you like, 'You're selling us out,' " he said.
But Lyles said the name issue was secondary to another possible event in changing the image and appeal of the faith: African-American pastor Fred Luter Jr. of New Orleans was elected last year to SBC's No. 2 position, first vice president. Most in that post have gone on to become president.
If Luter is elected president, he would be the first black leader of the denomination.
The "Great Commission" refers to Matthew 28:16-20, in which Jesus instructs his disciples at Galilee to "go and make disciples of all nations."
