Christian Singles – Looking for Love in All the Right Places?

Enter “christian singles” in Google and it returns more than two million links. I recently did a keyword search of the most popular search engine queries with the word “christian”, and “christian singles” came top (followed by “christian t shirts”, “christian debt counselling” and “christian gifts”).

I had no idea that catering to Christians looking for love was such big business.

My interest was aroused by my recent move to a new church, where a prominent member runs an introduction service (not specifically aimed at Christians). So I visited some of the Christian dating service websites.

The initial impression of course is how commercial they are. I guess that’s to be expected. It’s clearly a competitive business.

Do they work? Certainly the testimonials are impressive. Here’s one:

It's rather crazy... I did this on a moment-to-moment whim, just scanning around to see what this type of site was all about, purely on impulse.  I signed up for the trial and 2 days later, met him.  I'd never been in a chat room, never seen personals ads, never done instant messaging.  It's been 6 weeks now and he's on his way to come meet me.  We're pretty sure marriage is in order, and it appears the Lord has been working in some beautiful ways.  I never thought this kind of thing could be safe or reasonable for Christians, but it seems to be possible after all. Thanks for making this service available.

Here’s another:

Yes I met my soul mate on the site. He sent me an e-mail on the 25th of Feb. and I didn't return it until Feb. 31 because I was so frustrated with the site, because I had sent e-mails and I was just ignored, so when I received his I took my time to return it. I was so glad that I did because he is all that I had prayed for. The Lord has blessed me richly because he is a wonderful man. We emailed for a while then I gave him my number and we talked and got to know each other better. I think that we got to know each other better this way than if we were together all the time. We have a June 19 of 2004 wedding planned, anyone and everyone from the site is welcome.

(Of course, not every Christian single is looking for marriage, and Christianity Today provides an extremely useful page of resources on the single life.)

Finally, on a personal note, another testimonial.

I met my own wife (she’s Korean) nearly 19 years ago (pre-internet days) through an introduction service (not a Christian one). She had been praying to meet a Christian man to marry. She got me instead. I wasn’t a Christian back then. Six-and-a-half years later I came to the Lord.