Cheap spirit leads to fun next to church (6)
I believe the answer is:
hootch
'cheap spirit' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I can't see how they can define each other.
'fun next to church' is the wordplay.
'fun next' becomes 'hoot' (I can't justify this - if you can you should believe this answer much more).
'to church' becomes 'ch' (abbreviation on maps etc).
'hoot'+'ch'='HOOTCH'
'leads to' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for hootch that I've seen before include "Illegal liquor" , "Illicit whisky (colloq., variant spelling)" , "Illicit spirit" , "Illicitly distilled liquor" , "Drink" .)