Ms. Devlin says guys are also usually more readily available to go out to events, so 74heaven often has a male surplus at these. The reason is that the women often have children, which means babysitting costs.

“Women are also more prone to be nervous about getting out by themselves on the dating circuit, or they have done the experience once and not met Mr. Right the first time and so are discouraged.”

Tereze Vermunt works with young people in the area of sex and sexuality through Blueprint, a division of The Rock church in Wellington. When called by Challenge Weekly, she had just returned from her honeymoon.

Mrs. Vermunt said that in her experience there was definitely an imbalance of sexes in churches she visited.

“My husband went to a different church – both of our churches had a significant difference between men and women, and it meant that women were either finding themselves very frustrated, or they were going out with non-Christians.

“Not only that, a lot of the men who are of marriageable age don’t know how to pursue women properly. Everything’s based on feelings, I suppose. They are all looking for Pamela Anderson, because of the media.

“It’s a really big problem for guys, because of all the pornography that’s out there, and all the advertising. They’re all going for looks first, instead of character – it’s a huge problem in the Church at the moment.

“Or they’ll get into a relationship and freak out after a month or six weeks – do a runner. They’re not taught what commitment is. They think if their feelings suddenly change and they’re not falling madly in love with this woman, it all must be wrong.”

So what do women do when they want to find a partner?

Mrs. Vermunt says they might ask for the help of friends. But some Christian women are making the mistake of thinking that if a male shows any interest at all in church, “they’ll think that means they can put them on the available list. A lot of guys will start going to church for a girl, and some girls think that is sufficient.

“In my experience, the result is pretty much always bad. I can think of three off the top of my head that have happened quite recently - where the guy has gone to church with a girl, it hasn’t worked out and he hasn’t set foot in the door again.

“I can think of only one time when it worked out, and that was a Christian guy and a non-Christian girl. When I first became a Christian, I went out with a non-Christian guy, and he became a Christian. But when we broke up he fell away.

“In my opinion some people should not be dating anybody because of issues within themselves that need to be sorted out first. But when everybody else is getting together with somebody, and you’re left alone, it’s very easy to get into a wrong relationship.”

Says Robyn Burnett: “It’s not just a case of a male being available. We want the right sort of person. We look for someone who’s on fire for God, and there’s a serious lack of that.”