The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has refused to welcome Saddleback Church back into its fold, rejecting an appeal by the California megachurch over its February ouster for having women pastors.

SBC messengers (or delegates) at their annual meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana also rejected a similar appeal by a smaller church, Fern Creek Baptist of Louisville, Kentucky, which is led by a woman pastor.

The results were announced Wednesday morning at the conclusion of the two-day annual meeting of the nation's largest Protestant denomination. All Baptist churches are independent, so the convention can't tell them what to do, but it can decide which churches are "not in friendly cooperation," the official verbiage for an expulsion.

The SBC's statement of faith says, "While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

Saddleback had been the denomination's second-largest congregation and until recently was widely touted as a success story amid larger Southern Baptist membership declines.

With the 9,437-1,212 vote, delegates rejected an appeal by Rick Warren, the retired founding pastor of Saddleback and author of the best-selling, The Purpose Driven Life.