Frequently Asked Questions - Salem Alliance Church

Our intent is to free you from concern and worry so you and others in the Worship Center can enjoy an undistracted time of worship and teaching. Your baby will be lovingly cared for by our excellent and carefully screened Pre-School nursery team. There are separate rooms for Infants, Crawlers and Walkers.

What do I need to bring? Each child will be changed during service times using disposable diapers that we provide for your convenience. We suggest you leave minimal belongings in the nurseries with your child (i.e. bottle or pacifier).

Is a mother's lounge available? A private place for those with nursing babies is inside the nursery area and is equipped with speakers allowing mothers to hear the sermon while attending to their baby. Please ask the Pre-School staff for the location.

Grade School age kids

Our goal is that Sunday School would be the absolute best hour in every kid's week. We consider ministering to your kids to be the greatest assignment given by the King of kings. Our job is to help His kids tie their hearts to Him!

His Kids Ministry. Designed for children in kindergarten through the 5th Grade. Age-relevant teaching is available during every service on the weekends. Our goal is that your kids fall in love with Jesus, grow in their personal relationship with Him, serve others with joy and tell about the Good News of Jesus Christ.

Why are there separate services for kids and adults? We want to do all we can to help kids come to know Jesus Christ. We present God's Word to them in a way they can understand and in an age-appropriate setting. Kids matter to God and we hold it a precious privilege to nurture them. We will do everything possible to help them grow into healthy men and women of God who love and serve Jesus.

3. What time are your worship services?

Worship services are held on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings. Saturday services are 5:00 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday services are 8:00 a.m., 9:30 a.m. and 11:00 a.m. All services last about 65 minutes and all services are essentially the same in worship and message.

4. What is a service like?

How do we worship? We express our worship to the Lord through singing, lifting our hands, words of praise and music, clapping our hands and quiet times of reflection.

The purpose of worship is to help people come to know the Lord. As we express our hearts to Him we grow in our relationship with the Lord. God's nature is such that He cannot withhold His presence when we come together and praise Him. We grow in knowing Him as He reveals Himself to us.

What is the style of music? Every song we choose seeks to inspire, motivate, reflect biblical truth and communicate what people who love God want to say to Him. Our worship style is meant for all generations and is relevant to our culture.

Are all services the same? All services held in the main Worship Center have the same preaching team, message and the worship structure is essentially the same. Sunday services in the Cedar Hall sanctuary (9:30 a.m.) provide the same message in a quieter and more reflective setting. Worship is led by a five-piece music team and communion is served every week.

What can I expect from the teaching?

We believe in Jesus and recognize that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. The Bible is necessary to understand God and His will for our lives. We are committed to allow His Word to shape our beliefs and behavior. The Bible is our source of truth and the subject of our teaching.

The message is a time of practical teaching from the Bible. We create an environment where people will hear the truth of God's Word in common, everyday language.

How long are the services? We strive to respect your time, and try to keep our services on schedule. Each service is approximately 65 minutes long from start to finish.

5. How do I get there?

Salem Alliance Church is just north of downtown Salem near the intersection of Market and Broadway streets NE in Salem, Oregon. Our address is 555 Gaines Street NE, Salem, Oregon 97301. Request directions by telephoning the church office at 503.581.2129.

From Portland:

Take I-5 South for about 40 miles

Take Exit 256 for OR-213 and Market Street

Take the ramp toward City Center and turn right onto Market Street NE

Go west on Market Street for about 2 miles

Turn right onto 5th Street NE and travel 1½ blocks

Church offices are located on 5th Street between Gaines and Hood streets

From Albany:

Take I-5 North for about 22 miles

Take Exit 256 for OR-213 and Market Street toward Silverton

Take the ramp toward Fairgrounds-Amphitheater and turn left onto Market Street NE

Go west on Market Street for about 2 miles

Turn right onto 5th Street NE and travel 1½ blocks

Church offices are located on 5th Street between Gaines and Hood streets

6. I have some questions about God...

What is life all about? That question has haunted and perplexed people for centuries. Society would tell us that our lives consist of our status, our appearance and our possessions. Yet many who have devoted their lives to these things have found them unfulfilling and temporary. They have learned well the art of making a living, yet have not learned how to live.

Nearly 2,000 years ago Jesus Christ taught that a person’s life does not consist of possessions (look up Luke 12:15 in the Bible). Jesus offered a radically different answer to our nagging question. For 85 years, Salem Alliance has echoed Jesus' answer by proclaiming the words of John when he wrote, “He who has the Son [Jesus Christ] has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life” (I John 5:12). That statement reflects both our greatest problem and God's great solution.

7. What kind of church is this?

Salem Alliance is a member of The Christian and Missionary Alliance (C&MA) denomination. This denomination began in 1887 through the work of Dr. Albert Benjamin Simpson. Initially intended as a missionary resource for mainline denominations, today C&MA includes over two million people in 75 countries.

The Christian and Missionary Alliance is an evangelical denomination with a major emphasis on world evangelization. It maintains a “big tent” stance in reference to many doctrinal matters, encouraging believers of diverse backgrounds and theological traditions to unite in an alliance to know and exalt Jesus Christ and to complete His Great Commission.

Since its beginnings, the C&MA gradually expanded to 1,100 missionaries in 49 nations and churches in 66 countries and territories. While the denomination establishes churches among unreached people groups, C&MA is also involved in many specialized missions such as communications, medical services, translation, relief work and developmental aid.

With churches in every state, C&MA totals about 350,000 Christians in nearly 2,000 American churches. One quarter of the congregations is intercultural in character, attracting immigrants and minority groups with strong cultural heritages. Affiliated institutions include four colleges, a seminary, a publishing house, four retirement centers and two development/investment organizations.

8. I need some help...

Help is available at Salem Alliance, no matter what you face. An experienced and caring staff of pastors are always interested in how they can support. Plus, there are many ministries that concentrate on the ways our culture pulls us down. Each is filled with trained volunteers who have faced what you're facing and found answers in God's Word and supportive fellowship. Consider these ministry groups:

Good $ense provides seminars and free, individualized counseling to households in financial crisis. Contrasting society against the heart and mind of God, volunteer counselors work with you to investigate your debt reduction options and create a reasonable spending plan.

Peacemakers offers educational resources, seminars, and conciliation training to help Christians serve God as peacemakers in everyday life. They also provide individualized conflict coaching, mediation and arbitration services to help resolve personal conflicts, business disputes and more.

Life Path Ministries is the healing and recovery arm of SAC. Organized around safe and confidential small interest groups that meet weekly, Life Path Ministries helps people deal with brokenness, past failures and hurt, and disappointments.

Community Impact represents a whole host of strong individual ministries, all committed to standing in the gap for families experiencing transition and crisis. Community Impact is committed to the whole health and well being of people in our church, neighborhood and city. Because of this deeply rooted commitment, ministries like the Storage Unit (delivering free furniture and household supplies), the Royal Order of the Red Suspenders (chopping and delivering wood as fuel to those without heat), New Beginnings Baby Boutique (providing life mentors and free maternity and infant clothing, furniture and supplies to pregnant, single women) and ANGELS (delivering daily sack lunches to Salem's homeless) exist to demonstrate Salem Alliance's value for hope in action and Christ’s love and concern for those indivduals and families often overlooked . Community Impact also offers several seasonal ministries designed to meet tangible needs all year long for both children and adults. These ministries include Project: Back to School, Angel Tree, Giving Tree and Thanksgiving Baskets for the benefit of providing clothing, school supplies, food baskets and children’s Christmas presents to Salem area families in need.

Find out more by telephoning the church office at 503.581.2129 or email your questions to info@salemalliance.org.

9. What does Salem Alliance believe?

Salem Alliance is theologically committed to the following:

1. There is one God, who is infinitely perfect, existing eternally in three persons: Father, Son, Holy Spirit.

2. Jesus Christ is true God and true man. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He died upon the cross, the just for the unjust, as a substitutionary sacrifice, and all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood. He arose from the dead according to the Scriptures. He is now at the right hand of the Majesty on high as our great High Priest. He will come again to establish His kingdom of righteousness and peace.

3. The Holy Spirit is a divine person, sent to indwell, guide, teach, and empower the believer, and convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.

4. The Old and New Testaments, inerrant as originally given, were verbally inspired by God and are a complete revelation of His will for the salvation of men and women. The Testaments constitute the divine and only rule of Christian faith and practice.

5. Men and women were originally created in the image and likeness of God: they fell through disobedience, incurring thereby both physical and spiritual death. All men and women are born with a sinful nature, are separated from the life of God, and can be saved only through the atoning work of Jesus Christ. The portion of the impenitent and unbelieving is existence forever in conscious torment; and that of the believer, in everlasting joy and bliss.

6. Salvation has been provided through Jesus Christ for all men; and those who repent and believe in Him are born again of the Holy Spirit, receive the gift of eternal life, and become the children of God.

7. It is the will of God that each believer should be filled with the Holy Spirit and be sanctified wholly, being separated from sin and the world and fully dedicated to the will of God, thereby receiving power for holy living and effective service. This is both a crisis and a progressive experience wrought in the life of the believer subsequent to conversion.

8. Provision is made in the redemptive work of the Lord Jesus Christ for the healing of the mortal body. Prayer for the sick and anointing with oil are taught in the Scriptures and are privileges for the Church in this present age.

9. The church consists of all those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, are redeemed through His blood, and are born again of the Holy Spirit. Christ is the Head of the Body, the Church, which has been commissioned by Him to go into all the world as a witness, preaching the Gospel to all nations. The local church is a body of believers in Christ who are joined together for the worship of God, for edification through the Word of God, for prayer, fellowship, the proclamation of the gospel, and observance of the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper.

10. There shall be a bodily resurrection of the just and of the unjust; for the former, a resurrection unto life; for the latter, a resurrection unto judgment.

11. The second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is imminent and will be personal, visible and pre-millennial. This is the believer's blessed hope and is a vital truth which is an incentive to holy living and faithful service.

10. How do I get started at Salem Alliance?

Salem Alliance has lots of things for you to connect into depending upon your interests and needs. To get started, you can find out more by either stopping by the Guest Information Booth located in the main church lobby between church services or visit the Welcome Center that is located outside of Cedar Hall. In both places there are volunteers eager to discuss how you can get connected at Salem Alliance.

Next, the first Sunday of every month we host a Newcomers Reception in the Welcome Center during the 11:00 am worship service. This is a great way to meet other new people, church staff and get your questions answered.

Another great option is the Foundations class that meets Wednesday nights from 7:00-8:30 pm. Beginning October 5th and lasting through to May, the class focuses on teaching the foundational truths of Christianity. It meets at the church and childcare is available. For more details, contact Pastor Steve Fowler at 503.581.2129 ext. 244 or email sfowler@salemalliance.org.







					SATURDAY SERVICES 5:00 \| 6:30 SUNDAY SERVICES: 8:00 \| 9:30 \| 11:00 "We exist to exalt Jesus Christ, become His fully devoted followers, and share His grace and truth with all people."

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