The church was started to follow the pattern of Christians known as 'Open Brethren'. The story goes back to the 1820s when Christians travelling in the British Isles found they could not take communion in the Churches unless they belonged to the same denomination. Several godly men met privately in different places, especially Dublin, Bristol and Plymouth, to pray and study the Bible. They concluded that the churches described in the Bible did not have ordained ministers or clergy. The early Christians met freely to praise God, to pray and to share the Lord's Supper. Groups of Christians soon arose in different parts of the British Isles, aiming to follow that pattern. They had no hierarchy, and no central organisation, although travelling preachers, Bible teachers and others made informal links between the churches. The group in Plymouth grew vigorously from 1881, so people began to speak of the 'Plymouth Brethren'. In principle, anyone who loved the Lord Jesus was accepted. Soon, an argument developed about the humanity of the Lord Jesus, and a powerful personality, J. N. Darby, refused all contact not only with the man who held the wrong views but also with church to which he belonged and any church that kept links with it, even when they condemned the error. The movement split, Darby and his followers becoming known as 'Exclusive Brethren', the others, like Hoylake Chapel, 'Open Brethren'.

The church at Hoylake Chapel welcomes to membership anyone who confesses Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord and accepts the orthodox, historic statements of the Christian faith as set out in the Apostles' Creed and the Protestant Reformation.