How to use this guide

What it does. It compares your answers on a questionnaire with what specific churches teach in their own documents.

It shows where your answers match, where a church leaves you free, and where it would ask you to affirm, teach, or practice something you do not hold.

What it does not do. It does not say which answers are correct, and it does not measure anyone's standing before God. Agreeing or disagreeing with a church's stated teaching says nothing about the sincerity of a person's faith or the life of a congregation. The guide takes no side among the churches it describes. It measures stated teaching only. It cannot show how a congregation worships, treats its people, handles disagreement, or practices love; the questions near the end of this guide are for that.

This is not a chatbot. You are not talking to an AI, and nothing here answers you in conversation. The questionnaire is fixed. When you pick an answer, the page compares it with a table of what each church's own documents say, using the same simple rules every time, so the same answers always give the same result. Your answers are saved for you only, and they go to the guide's author only if you tick the box to share them. The guide itself was researched and written with AI assistance, under the project author's direction. In the author's estimate, a person working alone without AI would need about a year for the research alone: 2,415 web addresses on 279 websites, across 26 churches. Every church line says how it was checked, so you can test it against the church's own words.

If something surprises you, or you do not agree with a finding about your denomination, please check the source for it. What each profile says was read directly from that church's own documents and written down there: every line records where the answer came from and links to the page, so you can read the passage yourself. If the source says something different from the guide, or has since changed, please let the author know. The guide describes what a church's documents say; it does not grade.

The questions go to the churches. Many catechisms work one way: the church writes the question and gives the answer. This guide turns that around. The questions come from what a believer holds, and each church is asked to answer them from its own texts. Believers hold that the Spirit puts the desire to do God's will in our hearts, and that we then test what we sense against Scripture. Here the churches are set beside what you hold in your heart, and you, not the guide, do the testing. The guide describes and does not grade. It also cannot measure what matters most. Churches in every age have been challenged when tradition came to stand above Scripture, and any tradition, old or new, can slip into valuing knowledge about God above knowing him. Study of Scripture and doctrine is good, but a match on every answer is not the same as a relationship with Christ, so use the result to find a place to worship and grow, and let that relationship lead.

Steps.

1. Take the questionnaire on your own before you read the church profiles. Choose E where you are undecided; that question is skipped. Nothing is ranked or scored while you answer.
2. Choose “See results” (or “Finish and see results” at any point). Your results are on a page of their own.
3. Read the profiles of the churches that come out closest, and of any church you are already considering.
4. Check how much of each church has been read. A church whose documents say little can look closer than it is, and a church that requires little can rank high for almost any reader.
5. If you visit a congregation, take the questions near the end of this guide with you.
6. Treat the result as the start of a conversation with a pastor, not a verdict.

Special use: compare two churches directly. You do not have to answer the questionnaire to see how two churches differ from each other. Any church can sit on the left side of the comparison in place of you.

1. Open Compare in the bar under the site menu, or tap “Compare” on a church in your results.
2. Pick the left side: “You” (your own answers), or any church. Pick the church for the right side.
3. Tap Compare. A full-screen view puts the left side’s answers on the left, named at the top, and the right church’s answers on the right, question by question, each marked match, open or differs, with how firmly each church holds it and why the guide coded it that way. Use the filters to see only the differences. “Save as PDF” and “Print” make a report you can take to a pastor.

Comparing never changes your own answers. When a church is on the left, the view speaks of that church, not of you.

Why this is useful. The question a believer asks is often not "Where do I fit?" but "What is the real difference between these two?" You may attend one church and be thinking about another. A family may be choosing between the churches the husband and wife grew up in. A friend may be leaving one tradition for another. A student may want to see how two traditions differ. The side-by-side view shows the differences in what the two churches' own documents say, on the same questions, so you do not have to rely on how one church describes the other, and you do not have to guess what each holds firmly and what it leaves open. A match means the two answers agree. An open point means one church leaves room or the answers fit together. A difference is a real difference. Two limits: the view compares documents, not congregations, and a church whose documents are silent on a question shows "no church answer," which is not a difference. It does not say that either church is right. The score is not the same in both directions. A difference counts for more when the church being scored holds the point firmly, so a church that holds many points as required (the Roman Catholic Church, for example) scores high against almost anyone who differs from it, while a church that holds few points firmly scores low against the same reader. When you compare two churches, the view shows the score for the order you chose and the score with the order swapped.

Finding your way around.

• Jump anywhere. The bar under the site menu has six places: Start here, Questionnaire, Results, Compare, Churches and Guide. This guide opens in the site’s reader: “Sections” lists its parts, “Next screen” turns the page, “Scroll view” shows a part on one long page, and “Back to top” takes you up.
• While you take the questionnaire. Six short statements about what most churches share come first; they are not scored. Then the main questions come one at a time. Each shows its options in their original wording, with a short plain explanation under each. Pick the letter closest to what you hold, or E if you are undecided. After you answer, a row asks “How much does this matter to you?” and offers the guide’s four levels: Required (a must), Expected, Taught (the default) or Left to conscience. The same levels are recorded for every church. The arrow keys move between questions, and the number keys 1 to 5 pick an option. A bar at the foot has Back, a count of how far you are, and Next. If you pick the church you attend, a folded “What does my church say?” under each question shows its answer. On the opening screen you can also start from a church’s answers and change what you differ on (Undo brings your own back), or load saved answers. “All on one page” shows every question at once.
• Digging into a result. Each ranked church shows its score, a bar, and counts of matches, open points and differences out of the questions compared. A church needs at least 8 compared questions to be ranked. Tap a church to open it. It lists which questions match, which are open and which differ, with links to compare it and to read its profile. Where an answer is marked “inferred”, tap “Why these answers are judgments” to see the reason and the other reading. The “?” folds explain the grip and the firmness. You can order the ranking by fewest conflicts, most matches, or agreement where the church speaks.
• Two personal questions. Just after Q2 are two questions about you, not about a church: what you would do if your church’s teaching and your own reading of Scripture disagreed, and what you would do if its leaders corrected you. They are not scored. In an open result, your answer sits beside how that church’s documents say it holds its people to its teaching, and about church discipline.
• Extra questions. When you reach the end of the main questions you can choose to answer 25 extra questions as a second round. They are not scored. The results note, for each church, the extra questions where its documents answer differently from you. If you marked an extra as a must, a church that differs from you on it is flagged in the results, in the side-by-side view, in the print report and in the PDF, and the flag never changes the score.
• Your personal creed. On the results page, “Save my creed as PDF” writes a statement of your own convictions in the first person from the questions you answered. Each position shows the question, the option you chose with its plain-language explanation, and your statement, with a level line (Required, Expected, Taught or Left to conscience; Taught unless you changed it). It lists what you have not decided, ends with a save code and a square code a phone camera can open, and names no church you did not name and gives no ranking. The file name carries the date and time, so a creed saved later does not overwrite an earlier one. Each statement restates the questionnaire’s own option in the first person, and it is not the confession of any church.
• Saving and moving your answers. Under “You and saving” on the results page are your save code, a Copy button, and “Move to my phone”, a square code that opens your answers on your phone. To bring answers back, go to Load my results and type the code, open a creed PDF there, or scan the square.
• To a church’s full profile. Choose a church on the Churches page, or tap its profile link in your results. A profile gives where its information comes from, how firmly it holds its people to these answers, and then its answer to each question, one card per question: tap “All the options” to see every choice with the church’s marked, and tap “Why this is a judgment” or “Source and how sure we are” for the reasoning and the source. “Previous” and “Next” move through the 26.
• To the sources. At the end of each profile, “Sources this profile cites” opens a list of web addresses grouped by website, so you can go to the church’s own book of order, confession or statement. The list is a starting point, not the whole record. The author’s full guide holds each answer in plain sentences with quotations from the church’s own texts, the complete source logs, and the pages that could not be opened. The author’s full guide is not published, because of its size. To check a source, read the church’s profile and any answer judgments or explanation first, then contact the author.

How sure each statement is. Every church line says whether it was checked in the church's own text, taken from a copy or quotation found elsewhere, or only implied. Nothing is filled in from memory.

What "inferred" means. Some churches state their position in plain words, and the guide quotes it. Others do not, and the guide has to read their documents and say which questionnaire option fits best. That answer is marked "inferred," and the line under it says why, in one of three kinds. "Stated in other words": the church teaches it, but in different words than the option uses, and the guide has matched them. "Implied, never stated": the church does not say it outright, but what it does say points there. "Two readings possible": the documents allow more than one reading, and the line names the other one. An inferred answer is a judgment, not a quotation, and the reason is given so that you can check it against the church's own words. It counts half as much in the score as a stated answer, because the guide is less sure of it.

Documents, not every congregation. Each answer comes from the church's own documents. Where those documents disagree and the church has not chosen between them, the answer is "leaves it open." A congregation can differ from its denomination; where reports show a rule widely unenforced, the guide counts that difference for less and says so in the profile. Ask the congregation you visit (see the questions near the end).

Binding is not the same as signing. A church can hold you to its teaching by a signed document, an oath (you swear, calling God as witness), a vow or promise (you commit yourself before God and the church, without swearing), a spoken profession of faith, or simply because you belong to it. Each profile says which, and for whom. The scoring looks only at how firmly the church holds you, never at which form it uses. A church can bind firmly with no signature at all: Catholic canon law binds every Catholic to the church's defined doctrine, the documents read name no signing, oath or vow for lay members, and those who take office make a public Profession of Faith and take an Oath of Fidelity.

Who holds the pastor to the teaching. The guide records what a church's documents teach, not what the pastor of one congregation teaches. Some churches require ministers to affirm a confession and have a body outside the congregation that can act when a minister departs from it. Others leave the minister to read Scripture for himself or herself, with little check from outside the congregation. Binding ministers to a text protects the teaching and costs freedom of conscience, and it can fix an error in place. Leaving ministers free protects conscience and costs you an outside check on the pulpit. The guide describes each church's arrangement and does not say which is better. For a church with few requirements, the documents tell you what the church teaches, and the pastor you meet may teach something else. The questions near the end help you ask.

This edition by the numbers. This Reader Edition is about 200,000 words in all, almost all of it the 26 church profiles at about 7,000 words each, or about half an hour a church, so read the profiles of the churches nearest you and not the whole edition. It holds the questionnaire, the scoring, the worked example and, for each church, its answers question by question. The full guide is about 750,000 words, and about 24 percent of it is research notes and revision history that record how each line was checked; it also gives every church's complete answer sheet, with all the options listed and every line uncut. The full guide covers 26 churches, 19 scored questions and 25 unscored extra questions, and cites 2,415 distinct web addresses on 279 websites (a floor: it leaves out addresses that returned nothing and documents supplied without a link). The author's full guide is not published, because of its size. To check a source, read the church's profile and any answer judgments or explanation first, then contact the author.