Resolution asks churches to consider rivals to Boy Scouts of America after its lifting of ban on homosexual members

The Southern Baptist Convention has called for its churches to consider funding rivals to the Boy Scouts of America, as it reiterated its opposition to the youth organisation's recent decision to allow gay members.

On Wednesday morning, attendees at the annual meeting of the SBC, which represents 16 million Christians in the US, approved a resolution that expressed "opposition to and disappointment in the decision of the Boy Scouts of America to change its membership policy". In May, the Boy Scouts of America said it would allow gay youths to join. That decision partially overturned a long-standing ban on homosexuals in the Scouts.

Baptist churches sponsor nearly 4,000 Scout groups in the US, with more than 100,000 members. At the meeting of the SBC in Houston, Texas, attendees – called messengers – approved the resolution against the Scouts, which said churches should "consider expanding their Royal Ambassadors ministry" as an alternative to funding scout groups. The Royal Ambassadors organisation was set up by Southern Baptists in 1908, to cater for boys from first to sixth grade.

The SBC vote could be a blow to scout groups supported by Baptist churches. The Boy Scouts rely on donations and support from church groups as well as businesses and other organisations, although other church groups have said they will continue to support the Scouts.

A spokesman for the SBC said messengers were "overwhelmingly in support" of the resolution, which also called for a change in leadership of the Boy Scouts. The measure stated that allowing gay youths to join the Scouts "has the potential to complicate basic understandings of male friendships, needlessly politicize human sexuality, and heighten sexual tensions within the Boy Scouts".

The Boy Scouts of America did not immediately respond to the Guardian's request for comment. The organisation voted in May to admit gay youths, partly overturning a ban that had been in place since 1978. The policy will be implemented at more than 116,000 scouting units on 1 January, 2014.

Gay men and women are still banned from serving as leaders in the Scouts but the decision to allow gay youth members at least partly appeased the Scouts' business sponsors, who had come under pressure from gay-rights groups. The vote was seen as a compromise, with many church groups, including the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, supporting the change.

The resolution passed by the Southern Baptist Convention is non-binding, and churches are free to continue to support scouting groups if they wish. Later this month a group of conservatives will gather in Louisville, Kentucky, to discuss establishing a "the creation of a new character development organization for boys", which would not allow gay members.