What Salvationists believe, and how they worship
The Salvation Army is an evangelical Protestant church in the Wesleyan-holiness tradition, founded in London in 1865, whose congregations are called corps, whose ministers are officers, and whose worship goes hand in hand with social service.
Salvation Army churches near Fergus
What Salvation Army Christians believe
The Salvation Army is a church as well as a charity; its members, called Salvationists, subscribe to eleven doctrines from William and Catherine Booth’s Christian Mission of 1865. The doctrines affirm that the Scriptures “only constitute the Divine rule of Christian faith and practice”; that there are three persons in the Godhead, “undivided in essence and co-equal in power and glory”; that Christ is truly God and truly man; that Christ’s atonement is “for the whole world so that whosoever will may be saved”; that we are justified by grace through faith; that continuing in salvation “depends upon continued obedient faith in Christ”; that believers may be wholly sanctified; and that judgment and eternal reward or punishment are to come.
This is John Wesley’s theology: grace for everyone, a real possibility of falling away, and holiness as the goal of Christian life. What sets the Army apart is its military organization for saving souls and serving the poor, and its position on the sacraments: it does not practise water baptism or the Lord’s Supper, holding that no outward ceremony is necessary for salvation and that all of life is to be lived sacramentally.
Worship: what a service is like
A Salvation Army congregation is called a corps and its Sunday worship a meeting, traditionally the holiness meeting. It is evangelical and warm: singing led by a brass band or worship group, prayer, Scripture, testimonies and a sermon ending with an invitation to kneel at the mercy seat, a bench at the front. Officers and many soldiers wear uniform; there is no communion table and no font.
How Salvation Army churches are organized
Its ministers are officers, men and women commissioned after training, with ranks from lieutenant to general. Members are soldiers who sign the Soldier’s Covenant, promising to abstain from alcohol, tobacco and gambling; adherents belong without those commitments. Corps are grouped into divisions and territories under International Headquarters in London. The Canada and Bermuda Territory began in London, Ontario, in 1882. The nearest corps to Fergus and Elora is Guelph Citadel, founded in 1884.
Compared with Reformed churches
Reformed churches and the Salvation Army agree on the Trinity, the deity and humanity of Christ, the authority of Scripture, justification by faith and the return of Christ, and both treat care of the poor as a duty. They differ where Calvinists and Wesleyans always have: the Army teaches that the atonement is for all and that a believer may fall away, while Reformed churches teach election and perseverance; the Army teaches entire sanctification as a second work of grace, while Reformed churches expect a lifelong struggle with sin. Most visibly, Reformed churches baptize the children of believers and celebrate the Lord’s Supper as means of grace; the Army does neither.