A wise man once wrote that civilizations are built by men with families to feed. This is the story of me and Dominion Dating.

My name is J.B. Durham, and next to me is my ever-faithful wife, Amanda. I am a pastor, but in 2018 I found myself unemployed after colliding with a woke, feminist faction in our church. This left me with no income, and a very sick wife.

Then came the lockdowns. With churches closed, my twenty years of ministry background was basically worthless in the job market. I had to do something. The only other extensive experience I had was 10+ agonizing years’ of online dating! So I took an idea for a Christian dating platform and ran with it.

G.K. Chesterton once wrote that anything worth doing is worth doing badly. Dominion Dating would have never happened if I hadn’t dared to be embarrassingly bad at first. I had no money to pay for marketing, web development, and so forth. Early on, I did most everything on my own. I bought a cheap microphone, some video editing software, and began watching YouTube tutorials on everything. I pieced together a marketing website, podcast and promo video, and put it out there.

Over time, as I networked and promoted, I met more and more people who believed in this project, and offered their skills.

Things moved slow at first. Then one day our bootleg promo video went viral. The NY Post, along with Relevant Magazine, framed us as a laughingstock. We got roasted by the founder of Veggie Tales. Even John Piper’s son ranted, happily, about us. Overnight, we were a byword to all the right people.

You couldn’t have asked for a better endorsement. The pile-on of snooty derision sealed Dominion Dating as the legit antithesis to everything woke “Big Eva” stands for.

This newfound notoriety proved to be a double-edged sword. It was great for marketing, but I had just accepted a new pastorate, and suddenly I had the Karen Brigade trying to dox me. Amanda and I laid low for as long as possible, but eventually the mob caught up with us and did everything in their might to incite a riot and run me out of town. Ironically, the very project I started in order to feed my family ended up killing my ministry and costing me my livelihood.

By God’s grace, we made it past that hurdle, and Dominion Dating appeared to be cruising towards take off in June of 2021. That’s when the wheels came off. We lost our developer. In desperation, I reached out to Bnonn Tennant, to see if there was a way to salvage the project.

God exceeded all my prayers and expectations. A few days after we talked, Bnonn pitched a plan to get us back on track and saved us from the brink of ruin.

Eventually, we were blessed to have Kevin VanGelder join our team, and he carried this project across the finish line by building our version 2.0 platform.

I am truly grateful to these two men, and a handful of others, who believe deeply in the mission of Dominion Dating, and have sacrificed their time and resources to make Dominion Dating a reality.

I’m also very thankful for my beloved wife, Amanda. We met seven years ago, on a Christian dating site. She has been a constant support and encouragement during this tumultuous journey. In the midst of everything else, Amanda was diagnosed with cancer and underwent two major surgeries—six surgeries, total, in our first six years of marriage. She has demonstrated tremendous, persevering faith against all odds, and together, we’ve witnessed God’s faithfulness time and again.

Our prayer is that Dominion Dating will be used by God to unite many godly singles and fuel a marriage reformation!

To hear even more of our story, check out our three-part podcast »