Explore faith

What is church?

A church isn’t just a building – it’s a community of people of all ages and walks of life who follow the teaching of Jesus together.

The worldwide Christian Church is made up of several different groups known as denominations. The Salvation Army is a denomination, as is the Church of England and the Baptist Church.

Like many other denominations, The Salvation Army has local churches all over the country and across the world. We’d love to welcome you!

You don’t need to be a Christian, have been christened, or wear anything special to attend a Salvation Army church.

Here are some of the reasons why it’s great to connect with a church.

Why connect to a church

Attending church regularly means we get to journey through life as part of a God-given family. God made us to be with others, to build each other up in Christian faith, to help each other and to encourage, celebrate, comfort and challenge one another.

Christianity works best when it’s lived out with other people – it’s about experiencing God's love together.

God’s love and care of us as our creator means he is worthy of our praise and adoration. Traditionally, churches meet on Sundays for corporate worship, but it can happen at any time. It can also take many forms, including music, art, creative prayer and Bible readings.

While worship is something we do, it is also about who we are – our best offering of praise to God is to live in a way that honours him and the example of Jesus.

God communicates with us through his Holy Spirit, which is his presence in the world and in our lives, and through the words of the Bible. Churches offer opportunities for Christians to share their experiences of God and study the Bible in various ways, including small group discussions and talks during worship services.

Through church, Christians can explore who God is, what our purpose is on Earth, and how this impacts our everyday lives.

Churches are also places for anyone to ask questions about life and faith – you don’t need to be a Christian to attend a church. We’re all learning together and benefit from hearing one another’s perspective.

God has created each person with skills and abilities, such as teaching and caring for others. Churches seek to recognise and develop the gifts of their members for the benefit of everyone – those who have Christian faith and those who don’t. Together, we can achieve more and spread the message of God’s love even further.

Christians believe God loves and values all people equally. This means churches should be spaces that enable all people to flourish. It also means churches should work with others for the good of local, national and international communities by challenging unfair systems and structures that oppress and marginalise people.

Salvation Army churches

In The Salvation Army, we call our churches ‘corps’.

We usually meet together for worship on Sunday mornings when we sing together, pray, read the Bible and hear a talk about following Jesus.

Anyone can come to our worship services. People can join in as much or as little as they want to – you don’t have to be a Christian and you can wear whatever you feel comfortable wearing.

If you don’t want to come along on a Sunday, your local Salvation Army church may run courses for people exploring Christian faith or you can contact the church leader for a chat.

Our churches also run community programmes and services during the week in response to local need, interest and resources. Everything we do is about putting our Christian beliefs into action, from coffee mornings to parent and toddler groups, food banks to debt advice.