A NEW year has brought with it a new duo to head up the Salvation Army on the Southern Downs with a husband-and-wife team at the helm.

Lieutenants Zak and Dee Churchill graduated as Corps Officers in Sydney last year, beginning their Salvation Army careers in the Warwick last month.

The couple said the Rose City was a sought-after area to work as officers-in-charge, and with two-year-old son Jeremiah in tow, it was an ideal community for them to settle as a family.

"It's a big change from Sydney, it feels safe and we are really enjoying how welcoming and friendly people in the community are," Dee said.

However, Zak said Warwick faced some similar major social issues to Sydney such as homelessness.

Couch surfing and sleeping rough is big problem here and one of our priorities will be working with the council and community organisations to develop some solutions," Zak said.

Assisting drought-affected farmers in the region through an existing Salvation Army and Landcare initiative will also be a key objective, Dee said.

Zak and Dee's role puts them in charge of leading church services, managing welfare services and emergency assistance, and fund raising for events such as the annual Red Shield Appeal in May.

Zak said while they were appointed to the corps, they we're essentially appointed to the Southern Downs community.

Since moving to Warwick, Zak and Dee have been busy finding a house, a daycare centre for Jeremiah, unpacking and having meet-and-greets.

"We have settled in and had our first congregation a few weeks ago which was really enjoyable and the attendance numbers (30 people) were good," Zak said.

The theologians grew up in Brisbane so Warwick was not entirely unfamiliar to them, he said.

They replace Steve and Lydia Spencer who moved to Mackay to take up a posting.