How Ratings Work
ChurchCompass ratings are assessments based only on publicly available information. They are meant to help someone new to faith, or new to a town, quickly understand what a church says about itself. They are not official reviews, endorsements, or a judgment of anyone’s faith.
Sources we use
- The church’s own website: About / Welcome, What We Believe or Statement of Faith, New Here, worship, kids and ministry pages
- The church’s denominational affiliation and that denomination’s published confessions or creeds
- Denominational and local-government directories, OpenStreetMap and the US Census geocoder, to confirm that the church exists, its address and its map location
- Local news listings, such as the Delco Times weekly church-services list, for basic facts like service times and phone numbers. Each one is cited and linked next to the fact. We don’t use non-news church directory sites.
We do not use Google star ratings, sermons, rumors, or visitor reports. Every score on a church profile has a short reason and a link to the page it came from. Each fact shows the date we last checked it.
The six categories
Each church is scored 1 to 5 in each category. Labels: 4–5 Strong 3 OK 1–2 Weak Not enough public info when the church’s own website has nothing on that subject, and Not scored when we could not read enough public information. See how much information is behind each listing.
| Category | What it measures | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gospel Clarity | How clearly and completely the church's own public website explains the church's own message about Jesus and salvation, in its own words and tradition. Clarity and completeness of what is stated, not agreement with any particular doctrine. Four elements, in the church's own terms: (1) who Jesus is: a title such as 'Lord', 'Savior', 'the Christ' or 'the Light of the world' counts (ChurchCompass, 2026-10-17), a bare name does not; (2) what people need saving from, or why salvation is needed; (3) what Jesus has done or does about it; (4) how a person receives it or responds. A newcomer pathway is a plain-language explainer, or a described course or process for people exploring the faith (e.g. 'Why Jesus' page, Alpha, Christianity Explored, OCIA/RCIA), or a gospel-explainer video linked from the church's site (ChurchCompass, 2026-10-17). Only text on the church's own site counts. | All four elements stated AND a newcomer pathway. | All four elements stated, or three elements plus a newcomer pathway. | Two or three elements stated. | Jesus, the gospel, salvation or God's grace mentioned only in passing (one element at most). | Very little: some related text exists, but it is too thin or unclear to score higher. (If the church’s website has nothing at all on this, we show “Not enough public info” instead of a score.) |
| Scripture & Teaching | Role of the Bible and access to teaching. | States the Bible's authority (inspired/inerrant/final authority) AND sermons are posted AND a Bible study or class is listed. | Authority statement plus sermons or a Bible study. | Scripture described as central or grounding, without an authority statement; some teaching available. | Scripture rarely mentioned. | Very little: some related text exists, but it is too thin or unclear to score higher. (If the church’s website has nothing at all on this, we show “Not enough public info” instead of a score.) |
| Core Orthodoxy | Affirms historic Christian basics: the Trinity, the deity of Christ, the resurrection. | The church's own statement explicitly affirms all three. | Church's statement affirms two; the third is covered by its denomination's confession. | Not spelled out on the church's site; affirmed through the denomination's published creeds/confessions. | Unclear from public information. | Public statements contradict them. |
| Welcome & Community | How easy it looks for a newcomer to connect. | New-visitor page with practical what-to-expect AND fellowship/groups info AND accessibility details. | Two of those three. | One of those three. | General welcome only. | Very little: some related text exists, but it is too thin or unclear to score higher. (If the church’s website has nothing at all on this, we show “Not enough public info” instead of a score.) |
| Discipleship Path | Clear next steps for growth. | A newcomer/exploring-faith course or initiation process AND small groups or classes AND a described membership/baptism/initiation step. | Groups or classes plus one other next step. | Some classes or groups listed. | Little listed. | Very little: some related text exists, but it is too thin or unclear to score higher. (If the church’s website has nothing at all on this, we show “Not enough public info” instead of a score.) |
| Transparency | How easy it is to find what the church believes online. | Dedicated beliefs section with a detailed statement AND a link to its denomination's or a historic confession. | Dedicated beliefs section with a statement. | Brief beliefs/mission text, or beliefs only via a denomination link. | Hard to find on the site. | Very little: some related text exists, but it is too thin or unclear to score higher. (If the church’s website has nothing at all on this, we show “Not enough public info” instead of a score.) |
Gospel Clarity, in plain words
Gospel Clarity measures how clearly a church’s own website explains its own message about Jesus and salvation, in its own words and its own tradition. It does not measure whether we agree with that message, and no tradition’s wording is used as the standard.
We look for four things, in whatever words the church uses:
- Who Jesus is. A title for Jesus counts (for example Lord, Savior, Son of God, the Christ or the Light of the world); his name on its own does not.
- What people need saving from, or why salvation is needed (for example sin, death, separation from God).
- What Jesus has done about it (for example his death and resurrection, or the sacraments he gave).
- How a person receives it or responds (for example faith, repentance, baptism and the sacraments).
A newcomer pathway is a plain-language explainer or a described course for people exploring the faith, such as a “Why Jesus” page, Alpha, Christianity Explored, or OCIA (formerly RCIA). A video explaining the gospel that the church links from its own site also counts.
- 5: all four, plus a newcomer pathway
- 4: all four, or three plus a newcomer pathway
- 3: two or three of the four
- 2: mentioned only in passing. A church that clearly states just one of the four also scores 2.
- 1: some related text, but none of the four is clearly stated
- Not enough public info: nothing on the church’s own website about Jesus, salvation or its beliefs (shown instead of a score)
Only text on the church’s own site counts; a bare link to a denomination’s documents does not. A low score usually means the website says little, not that the church teaches little.
How much information is behind each listing
A sparse website is not a judgment on a church. These labels show how much public information stands behind what you see, so that “the website says little” never reads as “the church does little”.
“Not enough public info” vs. a score of 1
- Not enough public info means there is nothing on the church’s own website to go on for that category. A welcome banner, a menu link, unfilled template text or a single displayed Bible verse doesn’t count as information. It is shown instead of a number and is left out of the preference quiz, like an unscored category. It is not a 1 or a 0.
- A 1 means the information exists but is unclear or too thin to score higher.
Info coverage (High / Medium / Low)
Every listing shows how much the church’s own website shares. It describes the website, not the church. We look for five key areas: beliefs (a statement of faith), about, service times, newcomer or visit information, and leadership. An area counts only if we found it on the church’s own site.
- High 4 or 5 of the 5 areas found
- Medium 2 or 3 areas found
- Low 0 or 1 area found, or no website of its own that we could use
Provisional scores
A small Provisional mark appears next to a score that rests on less certain evidence, with the reason in plain words, for example: the church’s website blocked our reader, so we read it another way; the score is based on our own translation; it relies on a news or other outside source; a key document is a scanned image we couldn’t fully read; or some related pages haven’t been read yet. We plan to re-check provisional scores first.
Source tags
Each cited fact is tagged with the kind of source it came from: Church website, Denomination directory (or the denomination or parent church’s own site), News, Map & Census (OpenStreetMap and the US Census geocoder) or Other (for example a township directory).
Last checked and corrections
Every listing shows the date we last checked its sources. If something is wrong or out of date, use Suggest a correction on the listing. We review every correction against the church’s own website before changing anything.
Churches marked “Not yet rated — limited public info”
Some churches have no website of their own, or a website with only contact details. We don’t rate them, because there isn’t enough public information to rate fairly. Their listings show only basic facts (name, address, map location, and denomination, phone or service times when a church, denominational directory, OpenStreetMap or a cited local news listing gives them), plus a link to look the church up on Google Maps. Churches can send us their details.
Important notes
- A score measures what a church publishes online. A church may teach or do far more than its website shows. A low score often means “not described on the website”.
- Worship style is not scored. Style is a matter of taste, so no style is rated better than another. Each profile shows the style as a plain description in the church’s own terms (for example blended, traditional or liturgical) when the church describes it.
- Different people weigh these categories differently. The preference quiz lets you choose what matters most; it reorders the list and never hides a church.
- About and What We Believe text is quoted briefly from each church’s website, clearly attributed and linked. Translations of non-English text are marked as ours. Churches can claim their profile or report an error.
- Always visit a church in person and talk with the pastor or leaders before making a decision.