Since the first steps had been taken in Battle Creek, in providing for the publishing work and having decided on a name, the members in Battle Creek were first to take the next step.

At an annual meeting of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association in October 1861, the Battle Creek church adopted the following covenant:

We, the undersigned, hereby associate ourselves together as a church, taking the name Seventh-day Adventists, covenanting to keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus Christ (RH, Oct. 8, 1861).