The First Baptist Church of Greenville, in South Carolina, has decided it will allow LGBT and transgender ministers to be ordained, after six months of debate.
The 184-year-old church held a discussion which centred around the question: "Can you worship and live with the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community in the church?"
The result was to allow homosexual unions and ministers, with each member present giving a public affirmation.
Senior Minister Jim Dant said the church was in favour of "embracing the complexities of gender identity."
"What I heard was, 'We need to do the right thing, regardless of what anybody thinks or says about us. There were a few people who said, 'Are they going to start calling us the gay church in town?" Dant said in Christian Today.
He said church members knew "being open and welcoming to all people is part of the essential nature of our community of faith," adding that those against the idea had chosen to remain as part of the congregation.
The decision was met with opposition from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an umbrella coalition of 2,000 moderate Baptist churches.
In a statement it said: "The foundation of a Christian sexual ethic is faithfulness in marriage between a man and a woman and celibacy in singleness."
