The forties dawned upon us with the economy barely starting to improve. The passage of the Lend Lease Act in March 1941 signaled the end of The Great Depression and a boom, such as we had never known began. Plants went on 24 hour shifts and soon we had 70,000.000 people employed, but at what a price.

The attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 was followed by Germany's declaring war on the United States four days later. The War in the Pacific was placed on hold as the European War was given priority, which ended on V-E Day May 7, 1945 less than four weeks after F.D.R. died. Harry S. Truman became President serving throughout the remainder of the decade and two years into the next. V-J Day August 14, 1945 saw the end of the war in the Pacific but not until the first atomic bomb ever had been dropped on August 6, 1945. It proved to be an awesome weapon indeed.

This was a disastrous war and its effects would be felt for years to come. Bethany contributed 368 men to the service of their country, of whom seven lost their lives. Their names, forever inshrined in our memory were Earl Champlain, John Jellema, Orville Maddderom, Darwood Parrish, Earl Ritzema, Alvin Westerhoff and Cornelius Vinck.

If we seem to dwell on local and national history it is only to create a better understanding of under what conditions our church had to operate.

In 1940 Bethany had, on its rolls 1524 communicant members and 779 baptized. This was an all time high and it remained at this level until the close of the decade. God had again spoken to the people and they were still hearing His voice.

Good things were happening in our church affairs. Evangelistic campaigns continued bringing men like French Oliver, Harry Ironside, Sam Zwemer, Gypsy Smith, and Lance Latham to our pulpit for week long services, and the people of the community responded.

On September 24, 1944 a radio program was created broadcasting our Sunday services. The response, by letter and phone, was gratifying. This, of course, was the forerunner of the "American for God Hour". Street corner meetings, Saturday night prayer meetings and radio all tended to reach out to the unsaved and many souls who might otherwise never have heard the Gospel came to Christ.

However, in 1946, another enemy to church attendance came into being. Television was here. And it was here to stay. Now one could stay at home and be entertained. People, who wouldn't think of going to the theater, could stay at home and watch movies or the perennial favorite of the early days--wrestling. This, of course, placed television in direct opposition to church attendance. The church, which had been for so long, the social center of the community, was being phased out of many lives. Attendance which had peaked from 1940 to 1946 now began to decline.

This dropping off of people is not at first apparent and is not reflected in the church rolls for some time, with the result that official records are not too reliable for times like these. Counting the number of people at services is a more accurate indicator.

We were not alone in this loss of attendance because churches all over the country were having the same problem. Good times and bad attendance seem to go together.

But, not to worry, leave it to the Master. A recession began in 1949 and deepened as time went on. God wasn't through the American people. Would they hear Him this time?