One of the challenges for young Christians in China is finding spouses who are also believers. Because of family and society expectations to marry, young people, especially those whose parents are not believers, are under extreme pressure because their parents do not understand (or accept) their commitment to marry other Christians. This pressure is particularly acute for single women.
As space has opened up online for Christians, some have turned to the Internet as a place to find a Christian spouse. The mainland site Gospel Times recently posted information about 7 mainland dating sites for Christians.
The Bible says, "Do not be unequally yoked." It teaches that we are to marry those who are in the Lord. However, because of the imbalance of men and women in the Church, this isnt easy. A single Christian recently wrote to the Gospel Times Weibo about his/her distress in this regard. In order to help Christians, some have set up Christian dating websites, both in China and abroad. Here are 7 that we found by doing a simple online search:
According to the introduction on the website, their service is free and they cater only to true Christians. They are a platform where single brothers and sisters can get to know one another. The website was launched on February 23, 2010. There are currently 14,952 members (6939 brothers and 8013 sisters).
2. Love 2 in 1
As of day 1583 of the site, there were 16,936 total members. 1323 members have found a spouse or are communicating with someone. One section of the website is titled "Success Stories," where you can find stories of people finding their spouses. The ministry not only helps people find friends, but leads to marriages as well. In the "About Us" section, the founder of the website shares her own story: "
In 2009, Dong Yang and her husband, who were both new believers and did not understand the truth about marriage and divorce, divorced. As a result they experienced a lot of pain. Because of the pain, she learned to walk with God and became involved in marriage and family ministries. She learned how to make a web site and built one that would help brothers and sisters. In the process of serving in the ministry, marriage experts helped her correct her understanding about marriage and divorce. Three years after her divorce, she was reunited with her husband, and after a year of struggles, they were remarried on Valentine's Day 2013. In January of this year, God gave them a child.
In addition to providing online dating services, the ministry also offers other services as well, such as marriage counseling classes taught by Yuan Datong and other Chinese and foreign marriage experts.
3. Beloved
Here is the description of their site: "There are more and more Christian brothers and sisters using the Internet to find friendships. This site seeks to meet this need of brothers and sisters. Beloved seeks to provide a convenient and efficient Internet platform, not only to find potential spouses, but also to make friends in the Lord. We also seek to make the church more unified. Our websites is a single's dating platform; but it is more than that. In order to avoid confusion, if you come to the website for "dating" please make sure you indicate that. We have also started a marriage counseling blog.
4. Jonah's HomeChristian Marriage and Dating Center
6. Rose of Sharon (website under construction)
But those using online dating sites need to use caution. The site Jesus Free Wind gives these helpful reminders: 1. Online dating is still somewhat risky. Be sure to verify the true faith, personal information, and condition of the other person. 2) Protect yourself against fraud by meeting only at churches or other public places.
UPDATE January 22, 2019: One site with its link has been removed from this article as it is no longer appropriate.
Image credit: Romantic Couple Proposal for Wedding, by epSos.de, via Flickr
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