About Our Data

This page explains where the listings in this directory come from, how current they are, and what to do when something is wrong. It is the page our own crawler identifies itself with, so anyone who sees our user agent in their logs can find out who we are and how to reach us.

Where the data comes from

• OpenStreetMap, the open map of the world — © OpenStreetMap contributors, used under the Open Database License. This supplies most listing locations.
• Church websites, where a congregation publishes its own address, service times or beliefs.
• Corrections, additions and new listings sent to us by churches and readers.

We do not invent data. Phone numbers, addresses, service times and social links are recorded together with a source where one exists. If we cannot support a value, the field stays empty rather than being guessed.

Denomination labels — and what “Denomination not listed” means

This directory covers the evangelical Christian family rather than one denomination, so each listing shows the church’s own denomination where the record carries one. The label is either stated by the church or inferred from the church’s own name — never from a guess about what a congregation must believe:

• A named denomination — e.g. Southern Baptist, United Methodist, Presbyterian Church in America, Assemblies of God, Calvary Chapel, non-denominational.
• Denomination not listed — the source record carries no denomination, so we make no claim about it. This is the honest state, not a missing feature.

“Denomination not listed” is not a judgement about a church. It is an honest statement that we cannot show where the claim came from. As sources are recorded, listings move out of this state.

What is out of scope

Roman and Eastern Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Episcopal, United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalist, Quaker, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Latter-day Saints, Christian Science, Iglesia ni Cristo and every non-Christian congregation are outside this directory’s scope, and are not imported. A church that belongs to one of those bodies is never relabelled to fit in.

Independence

HousesOfWorshipAroundMe.com is an independent directory published by IT FOCUS, LLC. It is not owned by, operated by, endorsed by or affiliated with any denomination, network, church or religious body it lists. Denominational names appear only to identify the congregations that carry them, and are the property of their owners.

Freshness

Listings carry a last-checked date where a check has been recorded. We re-check listings against their sources periodically and flag ones that have gone stale. If a date is missing, treat the detail as unconfirmed.

Correcting a listing

Corrections are reviewed by a person, not applied automatically. Email webmaster@housesofworshiparoundme.com or use the contact page, and include the church name, the page URL, and the source for the correct value if you have one. If you are a church and you would rather not be listed, tell us and we will remove the listing.

Crawling

Our crawler honours robots.txt, identifies itself with a contact address, and waits at least two seconds between requests to any one host.