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Seeking Reviews for ChristianMingle.com
Have you used the dating site ChristianMingle.com? We would like to hear from you?
After seeing their “Find God’s match for you” commercial for the umpteenth time, we figured this was a good time to check the site out for ourselves, so we will offer you our impression of the site, and seek reviews from those who have also used it.
When you first visit the site, it’s reminiscent of most dating sites, which basically won’t let you do anything until you sign up. So we did just that, and setting up a profile was easy and relatively pain-free. You answer a series of questions just as you would expect with any dating site, except there are a couple questions asking you to identify which sect of Christianity to which you belong. Fair enough.
Older ChristianMingle ad such as this one featured a photo of a cute guy or girl.
While creating my profile, I found it ironic that there was no option to select sexual orientation – so it is apparently only for straight Christians, but they do have the option to select that you drink “as much as possible.” And while there is no option to set your current relationship status as “Married,” those who are “involved” or “Dating someone” can enter and search for dates.
Having some experience with dating sites, I decided to set up a female profile, with no photo or bio so I could browse the site further. I selected a female because it has been my experience that women get contacted far more than men on these sites. I found their color-coded matches based on personality types to be an interesting angle.
I began browsing profiles of men in my area to see who was out there and what the typical profile looked like. I did see one guy I actually know in real life, and I know for a fact he is a devout Christian, so I can say that there are in fact some real guys on there. But the types of men I saw seemed to vary greatly. Some men had photos of themselves flexing their muscles in the mirror, with no mention of God or faith in their profiles, while other men seemed to pour their faith on almost a little too thick.
On the plus side, there seemed to be a large selection of men around my age in my area. Many of them state their Christian beliefs in their profiles. Some of the profiles were just plain confusing, such as the gray haired, divorced, retired man who listed his age as 18. Another guy appeared to be flashing a gang sign in his profile picture. One minor irritation was that paid or promoted profiles in the search results appeared to circumvent my search criteria. I tried searching for only Caucasian men, but promoted profiles with men of all races kept appearing in my results.
I would have contacted some members, but free profiles can merely browse without the option to communicate with other members. You are allowed to compose a message, but when you attempt to send it, you’ll receive the following warning:
To send this email, you must upgrade your account. In the meantime, feel free to try it out by creating and saving a draft. Click here to upgrade to a Premium Membership now.
Pricing
I can’t say that creating a draft of a message gave me any sense of value from this free account, so I went over to check out the pricing options, which as of 10/8/2012 was:
- 1 month: 29.99
- 3 months: 13.29 per month ($39.88 total)
- 6 months: 8.39 per month ($50.34 total)
- 12 months: 6.99 per month ($83.93 total)
Newer ChristianMingle ads show happy couples.
As I viewed the prices, I noticed that they were kind enough to pre-select the 12-month option for me. Also note that you have to subscribe first before you can turn off the auto-renew feature. In other words, all subscriptions are created with the auto-renew feature enabled. This is a rather disappointing, and unfortunately common, tactic implemented in a way that most users will forget to go back and turn auto-renew off after they’ve subscribed.
Within an hour of creating a profile, I had received two messages in my inbox from a user in my area. One of them said, “Great profile” even though my profile was completely devoid of any information other than the questions I answered. My profile contained no photo or bio. The other message I received asked if I could upload a photo – from this “user” who had no photo of their own. There have been reports of dating sites using fake profiles to contact new users via their internal messaging system as a means to get them to sign up and respond. I had to wonder if that was the case here.
After poking around for a couple hours, I didn’t feel as if I had a good sense as to whether or not this site would be valuable to a Christian seeking a relationship. I had the feeling that many guys on there were probably exaggerating their faith, based on type of photos they posted and some of the things they said in their bios. I also felt as if there were a large percentage of divorced single parents on the site. Obviously, most dating sites seem to be rife with those looking to re-enter the dating field, but the proportion did seem on the high side to me.
“Niche” Dating?
ChristianMingle is owned by Spark Networks. This company specializes in what former CEO Adam Berger referred to as “niche dating.” The company also runs JDate.com, BlackSingles.com, and LDSMingle.com. Some Christians object to this information, while others do not mind.
User Reports
We have received some user reports about ChristianMingle.com. These have varied from glowing endorsements to dire warnings. I’ve met couples who met on the website and were later married. I’ve also heard horror stories of stalkers and scammers who will gain trust and then ask for money for some type of “emergency.” Obviously, any social website will have its dark side, and users must exercise extreme caution.
An interesting side note is that this site ranks ChristianMingle as #3 behind eHarmony and Match.com in their “Christian Dating Sites” list.
How to Remove Your ChristianMingle.com Profile
If you want to delete your profile on ChristianMingle, it’s a rather painless process. Navigate to “Your Account” and click the “Remove My Profile” link. From there, you will be asked a couple of questions as to why you are leaving. Answer those, click on “Continue” and that should be it.
What is your experience?
Have you used ChristianMingle.com? If so, tell us about your experience – good, bad, or ugly. Do you feel it was worth the money, and do you feel as if it is a good way to make a connection with other Christians?
Television Ad
You’ve probably seen the ads for ChristianMingle.com on TV. A popular ad recently states:
You’re single. You’re Christian. and you’re looking for a meaningful relationship. Find God’s match for you at ChristianMingle.com. It’s easy and it’s free. Start browsing millions of profiles on the leading site for Christian dating. If you’re hoping to build a Christ-centered relationship, log onto ChristianMingle.com today. Sometimes we wait for God to make the next move when God is saying it’s your time to act. The next move is yours. Join free now at ChristianMingle.com.
Below is one of the ubiquitous commercial for ChristianMingle.com. As of this writing, the video on Youtube had 76 likes and 556 dislikes.
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Yay I have the first comment!
I used CM for a couple of months. I was kind of disappointed. I felt that a lot of guys on there were just looking to hook up and weren’t really interesting in finding a Christian woman. I have a girlfriend who dated a guy from there for a couple of months, so maybe I was just unlucky.
I have gone on three dates from Christianmingle and they were all OK. I don’t think everyone is on the same wavelength on this site. Some people are hardcore christians while others are believers but not so hardcore. The women I met were much more religious than I am, and all had kids and seemed to be sizing me up for a husband. It didn’t seem much different than any of the other dating sites in many respects.
It’s a dating site. Some people on there are Christians but not everyone is. If you know that going into it, you won’t be surprised. Personally, I had just as much luck on one of the free dating sites.
The men in general seem to be a lot less devout than the women on CM. This leads to dissapointment on both sides.
My husband passed away in 01/2011. It was a very hard time accepting his passing, so I thought going on Christian Mingle would be a good way to get back into life and meet new, Christian people.
My first encounter was with a man, age 68, divorced, living on a Lake Front, and completely dedicated to his grandchildren. He told me his wife got up and left him after 34 years of marriage. I asked him why, and he said that she was just tired of being married. (Red Flag) Well,
after days of e-mail conversations, he started asking to meet with me, and sent me a romantic card, and more e-mails. Since he lived within 100 miles, I thought about it. We exchanged e-mail addresses, he had my telephone number, but for some reason did not give me his. (Red Flag). Luckily I had his full name and location. So, I looked him up in the public records. I found his phone number and address. Everything matched. So, I got up the nerve to check him out by calling him. To my surprise, a woman answered. She introduced herself as his WIFE. Well, he certainly was married, with many children and grandchildren.
I asked to speak with him. He denied being on Mingle, but was calm when I told him that I thought he was being impersonated then. He said: ” Really?” and that sort of ended our conversation.
I sent him an e-mail. I asked him how could he have done such a thing? As a Children’s Advocate, I asked him to remove the pictures of his grandchildren from the site, as they could be in danger.
Yes, I reported him to Christian Mingle. Eventually, he was taken off, only to appear again, same picture, but without his grandchildren, and with a different ID.
This is only one of my unfortunate experiences. There were others. One, asked for money. Since I wasn’t raised a stupid human being, I said NO.
But, you do meet, sincere, good people, truly looking for a fulfilling relationship. Even up to ages 80. So, all I say is ‘beware’ and be BEWARE. You could find your Christian Match on Mingle
but it won’t be easy…
Thank you for posting this eye-opening experience. Good luck to you.
You’re right…….they should change the name to straightchristianmingle.com. Otherwise, it’s pretty misleading and, not to mention, discriminatory. Praise Jesus!!
You realize that if you are a Christian than you shouldn’t be homosexual any way. It clearly states in the Bible that homosexuality is a sin. You cant have both, you’re either gay or a Christian.
Fairly new to the site, but I have read many of the reviews that are negative. My biggest gripe is that “Cara” is the contact person, and though quick to respond, tells about how to get better “matches” in my searches. She said to rank the importance of each item…height, weight (build), marital status (separated, never married etc). There is no such “ranker” I can find. I get matches from people that do not match my requests. I see that this is not a Christian owned company. It is supposedly supported by Christian membership. I am disappointed that I get very few views. I KNOW this because there is no way to “hide” who you view. I am disappointed by smiling and favoriting people who do not acknowledge any such things. I would expect non-Christians to behave in such a way….but not Christians. I do realize people like who they like, Christian or not; but I would expect Christians to acknowledge another fellow Christian. Maybe I expect too much. I have met one special person on the site. I have tried many dating sites…Eharmony, Match.com, Plenty Of Fish. My biggest complaint is not against the sites…it would have to be against God. I say that not out of disrespect, but out of FACTS. In online dating (or in the real world)both men and women need to be physically attractive, educated, well-off to engage in hobbies/activities, and charming. If we do not possess those quaities I think we will not get hundreds of views or replies. Is that the fault of the site? I would say not. I would say it is the fault of God who created each of us in the womb. He knows what people are attracted to…Christian or not. Some of us simply are not attractive to the world, no matter how attractive God finds us.
dont get chat why
I really think the whole “Christian” angle is a gimmick. I didn’t see a whole lot of overly devout people on there. It just felt like a pickup joint to me. No thanks.
I am deeply disappointed with Christian Mingle. I spent a lot of money and an enormous amount of time on it. The matches I got were very low quality, sometimes completely out of all my preferences.
In addition, the overall experience did not seem authentic to me as a Christian. I found out recently that CM is owned by Jdate. I have nothing against that, but it confirmed my feelings about the mercenary nature of CM. I dropped my subscription.
To whom it may concern no I have not used this CM,but it hasnt stopped me from getting spammed to death by unsolicated emails.When contacting the proper authorities regarding spam & disabled unsubscribe buttons such as this spammer has disabled obviously.It is commonplace to advise the bussiness involved & explain to said company how degrading it is to your company to hire a spammer.I am not a christian not do I need your service so please remove my email address from your lists or have the spammer to remove it.
Thanks for your comment. They spam us relentlessly, too, sometimes every day.
Well, there shouldn’t be an option for “sexual orientation” because it is after all a Christian dating site. If a homosexual is interested in online dating, there are plenty of non-Christian dating sites they can use. I completely agree that a Christian dating site should not have the option of drinking “as much as possible”, nor should those who are “involved” or “dating someone” be encouraged to look for dates. But lets not pretend that a homosexual lifestyle is compatible with Christianity when the Bible clearly condemns it as a sin. Just read the following verses; Lev. 18:22, Lev. 20:13, 1 Cor. 6:9-10. Of course God loves homosexuals, and Jesus died for their sins and for the sins of the whole world, but we must be willing to repent of our sins if we want to be forgiven and receive the gift of eternal life. 2 Peter 3:9; The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.
If Christian Mingle was only for everyone who perfectly adhered to every rule in the Bible, there wouldn’t be one person on there.
What about pre-marital sex? Should everyone who has broken that rule also be banned?
Maybe all Christian bigots such as you should also be banned.
I was a member on Christian Mingle for a while. As others have said it seemed that many of the men whose profiles I viewed said little, if anything, about their relationship with Christ. On several occasions I was contacted by people who obviously had read NONE of my profile based on the things that they wrote. Some where obviously not who their profile said they were.
Experience 1: [NEGATIVE] I talked with one older gentleman online and then on the phone. He originally contacted me to voice support for me when I mentioned not being online often due to my mom’s then-recent diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer. He told me about losing his wife recently to the same thing and wanted to encourage me. Upon hearing that I was planing a trip from Virginia to Connecticut (where my mom lives) he invited me to swing by and visit him. I agreed, but felt a little check about it.
During one phone conversation before my trip he excitedly told me that he was going to make dinner for me, that we’d have the house ALL to ourselves, that I could take a nap if I wanted, and that I could take a bubble bath in his big bathtub…*WARNING FLAGS* I got really weirded out by that call and didn’t feel a peace about stopping, so I changed my route and told him I’d felt led to go a more direct route. Never heard from him again.
Experience 2: [POSITIVE] I also met one of the most wonderful men in the world (IMHO) on Christian Mingle. We began a long distance relationship (Me in Virginia and Paul in Ohio), which was difficult I might say. I drove to Ohio on several occasions after several months of chat and phone conversations. He came to Virginia to meet my family and friends and visit with me for 2 weeks. We were actually engaged for a while, but called it off due to serious differences in our doctrinal beliefs on salvation. We are still very close friends and I am grateful that he is s part of my life, even if it didn’t lead to marriage.
I think, like any other dating site, there are both good and bad people out there. It is easy to portray oneself in any light desired on the web. Unless a site uses background checks – as a few actually do, there is no way to guarantee that the person on the other end of the chats and email is really who he says he is. Caution is a must for those who use online dating services, whether they say “Christian” or not.