According to a recent report by Lifeway Christian Resources, the US-based Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) lost 457,000 members in 2022, dropping from 13.68 million members in 2021 to 13.22 million in 2022, the Christian Post reports.

It was the largest single-year membership drop recorded in SBC’s history.

Though there was a huge membership drop last year, the SBC reported that attendance at church services actually increased by 5% over 2021 as it continued to recover from the drop in attendance due to the COVID pandemic.

It also reported that 180,000 people were baptized in 2022, up 60,000 from the 120,000 people that were baptized in 2021.

However, this was less than half of the 445,725 the SBC baptized in 1972, at the height of the Jesus People revolution that impacted both Charismatic and non-Charismatic churches.

READ: SBC loses over 450K members in 2022; largest drop in membership in 100 years