Further to the recent announcement of Focus on the Family and ChristianCafe.com joining forces to connect more Christian singles, Sam Moorcroft made the trek down to Colorado Springs, CO and met with the staff of Focus on the Family and its singles ministry Boundless. After lunch, the group posed for a photo at Focus on the Family headquarters.

From left to right:

Martha Krienke – Editor/Producer, Boundless
Lisa Anderson – Director of Young Adults, Focus on the Family (and host of The Boundless Show)
Sam Moorcroft – President and Co-Founder, ChristianCafe.com
Darci Simpson – Manager, Alliance Development – Strategic Alliance Services, Focus on the Family
Edie Nielsen – Senior Director, Strategic Alliance Services, Focus on the Family

In the press release announcing the strategic alliance between Focus on the Family and ChristianCafe.com, Sam Moorcroft of ChristianCafe.com had this to say:

“Working with Boundless as its exclusive Christian dating partner is a great honor and privilege. This relationship will benefit Christian singles and enhance our already vibrant online singles community by providing them with proven relationship advice.”

Read more details on the Focus / ChristianCafe.com alliance.

It’s official! ChristianCafe.com is now the exclusive Christian dating partner of Boundless, the singles outreach brand for Focus on the Family. ChristianCafe.com will host Boundless’ superb content in a new ‘Dating 101′ section of the web site while Boundless will promote ChristianCafe.com to its followers.

From the press release:

“ChristianCafe.com, a Christian-owned online dating service, is now the exclusive online dating site working with Boundless, Focus’ outreach to young adults. Boundless.org, known for its articles and weekly podcast on issues ranging from biblical dating and relationships to worldview, culture and faith, will provide content for singles on ChristianCafe.com, including articles on navigating the path to marriage with purpose and a solid foundation.”

ChristianCafe.com members can look forward to even more Christian singles to connect with, while being guided by some of the great writings of the Boundless team.

So, you’re single and wondering about online dating. Or maybe you’re already trying it out and wanting to get more out of it. Possibly you’ve tried online dating before and are debating giving it another go.

Focus on the Family’s Boundless create informative and entertaining podcasts that deal with various topics relevant to Christian singles in their 20s and 30s. One of these, of course, is relationships – which includes online dating.

Last weeks podcast, ‘Behind the Scenes of Online Dating‘ featured a roundtable crew familiar with online dating from different perspectives. For some, they have dabbled in it on and off; for others it ‘worked’ (one dating, one married); one even co-founded a Christian dating service back in 1999 (that would be our very own Sam Moorcroft). While most provided stories and opinions from a relationship-seeker point of view, Sam provided insight and advice from a dating site operator vantage point. The discussion flows from one aspect of online dating and relationships to another.

Why did these folks try online dating? Reasons included living in a small town with few prospects; just moved to a new city and didn’t know a lot of people; never having a Christian date despite going to the ‘biggest church in town;’ all the girlfriends signed up together to check it out.

What expectations were there before trying online dating? Some expected to be dating right away! Turns out that’s not what materialized. It took time.

How does one stand out among the rest? A detailed profile was the consensus among the panel (“I like to read” versus “The last novel I read was ____ and I loved it because ___”). When reading profiles, those who put a lot of time and thought into their profile answers were considered serious about finding a match. Profiles lacking in detail were overlooked by the panelists.

Sam mentioned that, while being an unromantic way to look at it, finding a match is similar to a job interview and the job search as a whole. You need to differentiate yourself in your profile as you’re essentially competing against others on the site. Further with the job search analogy, singles have to take the initiative! Get out there and get online instead of waiting (just as you would if you were unemployed — sending out resumes and networking). Sam encouraged women to not be wallflowers and be fine with taking the initiative and starting conversations with men. The rejection rate is high, but such is the case with many things: sales, sports, etc…

When searching an online dating site do you limit yourself geographically? Sam suggests not to — trust God instead to guide you in your search.

The panel also talks briefly about ‘Red Flags‘ when using online dating sites.

Finally, if you’re not having too much luck with dating, do some self-examination. Are you dating the wrong kind of people? The roundtable discuss this further.

We recommend you give the podcast a listen – you won’t be disappointed!

Not only is ChristianCafe.com a service that has been successful in connecting Christians, it also remains the only major Christian online dating service that is Christian-owned — something we take pride in.

“It’s hard to believe it’s been a dozen years! Everywhere we go, we meet couples who’ve connected with us; it’s such a good feeling to know they met through ChristianCafe.com”

      – Sam Moorcroft, President, ChristianCafe.com

Thank you for being part of our online Cafe community! We wish you all the best in finding your soul mate.

Christian singles can now meet other singles via their Android smartphone! To download the Christian dating Android app simply access Android Market via your Android phone and search for ‘christian cafe’. Once you run the app, log in with your regular ChristianCafe.com username and password or create a profile via the app if you don’t yet have an account with ChristianCafe.com.

The app includes the ability to post new photos, perform detailed searches, view full profiles including photos and short answer responses, ‘favoriting’ of profiles, and – of course – sending email and winks. Please let us know, in the comments below, what you think. Thanks!

 

 

ChristianCafe.com co-founder and CEO, Sam Moorcroft, recently was interviewed by Cyber-Dating Expert Julie Spira. They talk about online dating trends, tips for online dating, and how ChristianCafe.com came about. The interview is embedded below. Enjoy!