Being a Christian and trying to date is hard. You want someone who shares your values and beliefs, but also
understands that God comes first and that church activities could preoccupy your time.
Oh, also finding
someone that wants to go to church with you.
If you've tried regular dating apps, then you know that
religion is either hit or miss. Most people wouldn't think of going to church as a 'date,' and some people say they
have a religion but aren't really that religious, and never go to church.
But there's no reason to
give up hope just yet -- not when there's ChristianMingle!
You're bound to have heard of ChristianMingle at this point in your life, as a single Christian, and also if
you've ever owned a TV in your life. Remember those commercials?
If you haven't tried ChristianMingle yet,
you're seriously missing out on probably the best dating app for Christians of all traditions out there. Everyone on
the app takes their religion as seriously as you do, and sharing the same beliefs and values is a given without even
having to talk to them first. It makes dating as a Christian so much easier.
If you're tired of just
checking off a box in your dating profile to mention your religion, and instead want to make it the center of your
relationship, then ChristianMingle is your best bet. To give you an idea of what you'd be getting into by downloading
yet another dating app to your phone, and how it's different, here is an in-depth review of ChristianMingle.
After downloading and first opening up the app, you have the option of singing in with your Facebook account or
manually input your info by using your e-mail address.
The process is pretty standard for any other app you
use; set a password, enter general information like name, age, gender, etc., upload your profile photos, and select
details about yourself. This is where you can select your religion, which includes all denominations of Christianity
such as Assembly of God, Catholic, Baptists, and even non-denominational. Which is great for religions like Christianity and Judaism which have different denominations!
You can also detail how often you
go to church, which is great if you're looking for someone who goes the same amount as you, or maybe even more or
less. For my profile, I selected that I attend church every week. You can also say if you have or want kids, your
occupation, and level of education in this step.
After you write your profile description, you can choose a
few of your interests that other people can see. Music, activities, travel, and sports are a few of the categories
you can choose options from.
Now, it's time to detail the type of person you're looking for. If you're not
going to take the time to make your profile awesome and tell all about yourself (which you should), then you
definitely want to make sure you select all the correct filters for your potential match. These are gender, age
range, distance from you, religion, and most importantly, relationship type you're seeking.
Once you've
completed all these steps, your profile is ready to go, but it wouldn't be a dating app if they didn't prompt you to
upgrade your membership.
A screen will come up recommending you to upgrade and mentions all the cool
features you'll get, but we'll get more into that in just a sec. You don't have to upgrade at this time and can skip
it for now.
ChristianMingle has five tabs to navigate through the app. Your home screen when finally logged in and in the app is
the 'Browse' page, where you can see all new profiles, or tab over to 'Online,' those within distance, your match
percentage, and 'LookBook.' The Lookbook is where you get to do all the fun swiping!
Yay!
Just
kidding, I know we're all pretty tired of swiping left and right, but it's an easy way of trying to get matches. If
you'd rather scroll through profiles and see more than one at a time, then all you need to do is view profiles in any
of the other tabs mentioned on the 'Browse' tab.
You can always refine your preferences for people in this
area, as well.
The next tab is where you can find all your message activity, as well as smiles. While
messaging is reserved for paying members, anyone can send smiles to people to hint that you're interested in talking
to them. If you haven't purchased a membership yet, but you smile at someone who has, they can reply to you. Or if
you happen to catch the attention of someone who is a Premium member by smiling or otherwise, you can message them if
they message you first.
You don't have to worry about read receipts, however, because those are available
for free members too.
The 'heart' tab, next to the messages tab, is where you can view your match summary
and see everyone you've matched with.
The next tab is where you can view all of your activity, from who's
viewed you, mutual likes, who you've viewed, and who you've liked. It's a good tool to keep track of the people
you're into so you never lose anyone while browsing.
Finally, we have your profile tab where you can edit
your preferences and settings, as well as subscribe to ChristianMingle. If you ever want to make any changes to your
profile or how you use ChristianMingle, this is where you can do that.
There's not really much else to
ChristianMingle -- there are no fancy features to keep you glued to the app, which can be a good or bad thing.
There are three different plans to choose from when subscribing to ChristianMingle. You can choose between a
six-month, three-month, or one-month subscription; the six-month plan is $24.99 per month, the three-month option is
$34.99 per month, and a one-month subscription to ChristianMingle is $49.99. All of these plans renew automatically
until canceled, and are billed as a one-time payment; that is, you'd pay $149.94 for a six-month membership, which
equals to the $24.99 per month.
The only thing a Premium membership unlocks is the messaging feature, but
when you think about it, that's pretty necessary in order to date off an app. You need to be able to talk to people
and set up potential dates.
So unless you want to wait around for a Premium member to message you first,
you're better off getting a subscription of your own.
ChristianMingle is a niche dating site, meaning a particular type of people are on this dating app that you want to
meet - those people in this case are Christians looking to connect. You have the potential of finally meeting someone off a dating app that is religious and
holds God at a high value.
There are a lot of people on ChristianMingle. Depending on how wide your distance
range is, you can find tons of people, and even if it's not so big, I can guarantee there are singles on
ChristianMingle in your area no matter where you live.
The best thing about ChristianMingle is that everyone
wants to have a serious relationship. There's no guessing or hoping that who you're talking to wants something more
than a casual hookup like you would on most other mainstream dating apps. These are all people looking to settle down
with you.
The only negative to ChristianMingle is their messaging service. If you don't pay for a membership, and you really
want to talk to someone, but they don't have one either, you'll never get the chance to message one another.
So basically, if you aren't willing to pay for a subscription to ChristianMingle, there's no point in using it.
ChristianMingle has had so many success
stories for a reason -- they're a truly great app for Christian singles looking to date. If you're someone who
takes your religion seriously and want to meet someone who does too but don't have the time or patience to wait for
them to come to you in real life, why not try out a dating app?
Why not that app be ChristianMingle?
I give ChristianMingle 5/5 Stars!
Yes, God has someone in store for you, but wouldn't you want to meet them sooner rather than later?
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