History

More than one million Swedes immigrated to America between 1845 and 1930, many landing in the mid-West because of attractive agricultural land and labor markets in cities like Chicago. The year was 1905 when the Swedish Baptist Churches of Chicago selected three of their leaders to look for a desirable country lake front location that was convenient to Chicago, to develop into a Christian resort. They came upon a forty-acre fruit farm west of Sawyer, Michigan near Lake Michigan, with a farmhouse and other buildings. After prayerful consideration, the property was purchased in July and named “Bethany Beach”.

For more than 115 years, a Christian community has gathered on the eastern shore of Lake Michigan to live together as Jesus and his first followers modeled. For generations, the believers at Bethany have dedicated themselves to glorifying God as they gather in a place that God has surely blessed.