First Steps of Christian Faith: Where Do You Start?

A short reflection on beginning to explore or re-explore your relationship with God.

I recorded this audio on a windy walk with my dog recently. It’s my first ever Substack audio so please make allowances for quality!

Whether you’re new to Christianity or you’ve been away from it for a while, I hope this short recording gives you a sense of calm, reassurance and encouragement to take the first or next small steps in your faith.

One thing I meant to say at the end of the audio is, the Bible says:

“For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”

Matthew 18:20 (NIV)

Which means that if you can’t find a church community to go to just yet, even if you get together with just one or two other believers then Jesus promises that He is there with you. And of course, He’s with you when you’re on your own too and you can pray to Him at any time about anything!

So, here’s the audio below and following on from that is the transcript of the recording.

Audio Transcript

I’ve been thinking a lot about church and about when somebody becomes a Christian. When you first become a Christian, what do you do? What do you do with your faith?

Or if you’re listening to this, you might not be a Christian yet. I’ve seen people on Substack and social media saying, “I’m interested in Christianity, but I’m not sure if I’m a Christian,” or, “I don’t know where to start.” I just wanted to make a little audio about that really.

I’m sitting outside. I’ve gone for a walk with my dog, and she’s running around digging holes. It’s quite windy out here, so I don’t know how this audio is going to be because I’ve not done one before. But anyway, I’ll have a go while this is fresh in my mind.

The first thing is, if that’s you, then that’s wonderful. There seems to have been a bit of a revival, or a bit of a surge, in people wanting to go to church or find out more about the Christian faith or even to say, “Well, I’m a Christian now.”

In the wake of Charlie Kirk’s death, and with everything that’s going on in the UK at the moment, life feels tough. We feel under pressure from various directions, and I think people are thinking, “Is there more to life? What’s going on?”

Maybe some people have had an experience of faith or church in the past that wasn’t particularly good or maybe they’ve just drifted away. Or maybe they’ve never really been that interested in it, and it’s a sudden thing.

The thing is, there’s no kind of magic about it. It’s not like, if you say, “I’m going to be a Christian, I’m going to follow Christ,” a host of angels is going to come down and start playing trumpets. I mean, I guess that could happen… but in most cases, it’s just a very ordinary sort of commitment to something, maybe accompanied by a spiritual feeling of closeness to God, or peace, or excitement, or something like that.

But I think it’s that step of saying, “Yes, I’m going to follow God. I’m going to follow Jesus. I’m going to give my life to Him.” Whatever words you use, it’s very simple.

Faith in God, faith in Jesus, isn’t like a religion. Religion is more of an external thing. Faith is a personal relationship with God, with the Creator of the world. He’s interested in you. He wants to be in your life, to be part of your every day. He’s very close to us: within us, outside of us, in the whole universe. It’s really quite mysterious and amazing when you think about it.

So it’s saying, “I want a relationship with that God, that Creator, that King of the Universe.” And there’s a lot of power in that.

It’s very simple, really. Then it’s a case of how to develop that relationship - how to follow Jesus, how to follow God.

One way is by reading the Bible. God will speak to you through the Bible, and through it you learn about His nature, His character, and His history. There’s guidance in there - it’s like a manual for life. Like how you have a manual for your car, it’s a manual for living.

There’s a lot of wisdom in it. Every day you can open your Bible and find something that applies to you, something that really speaks to you. It’s living and breathing Spirit–inspired Scripture. It’s come from God, and it’s for us, and it still speaks to us today, just as it has throughout history.

It contains everything about God’s plans for us, for the world, for eternity. So that’s how you start reading, really. But that can be difficult, so there are notes you can get, online studies, and all sorts of resources. You can go online or to a bookshop and find people who can guide you in this. You’ll find them anywhere - Spotify, YouTube -people who can help you along the way.

Prayer is another big one. Talking to God - quietly inside, or out loud, or in writing. I often pray while I’m walking. It can be in the morning, at night, or anytime during your day.

God hears your prayers. Someone once said it’s like a light system with three responses: Yes, No, or Not Yet. God always answers; He just knows the right timing.

And then there’s community and connection with other Christians because that helps to keep your faith alive and encourages you.

This is the tricky one, I think, because we tend to think, “Oh, I need to go to church.” And it’s great if you can find a good church but churches vary. Some are better than others. Some are not so good, and some are amazing.

You want to find a church that’s biblically based, that teaches from Scripture, both the Old and New Testament, and doesn’t bend Christianity to fit the world around it. You can usually tell when you go. You have to be discerning, and that discernment will grow over time.

Pray, “God, is this the right place? Is this a scriptural church or not?” Are they strong in truth, or are they vague and bending things to fit the world’s way? That’s one of the main things to look for.

Is it friendly? Is it welcoming? Are the people growing in their faith? Are they feeding you spiritual ‘meat,’ not just ‘milk’? Are they helping you grow in the Word of God?

And yes, sometimes it can come down to whether you like the music, whether you feel at home… you can tell.

I’ve been looking for a church for years - several years. I’ve had very good churches in the past, but I’ve also had some really bad experiences. Eventually I decided, “You know what, I’m not going to go to church for a while. I’ll just live my faith on my own at home.”

If I’m honest, after a while that got really tough. Some things happened in our lives that made me realise I needed more encouragement and connection. I prayed and said, “God, I need to find a church so badly.”

And He led us to a couple of churches. Today, both my husband and I really felt God saying, “This is the church for you. This is where I want you to be.”

I feel really hopeful about that. I’m not going to rush in or get overexcited. I’m just going to take it week by week. I’m not going to throw myself into rotas and church activities right away. I’ve done that before, and it had its season, but right now there’s so much going on in my life that I just want somewhere to go on a Sunday, to hear the Word of God, to meet people, and to grow quietly.

It’s given me a real peace, which is lovely.

So, I’d say it can be a feeling: you just know you’re at peace or feel at home. Maybe you sense God saying, “This is the place.” Or maybe you simply see that it’s biblically sound and aligned with Scripture.

There are different ways you might realise, “This is where I want to be.”

And I think that’s it. There was something else I was going to say, but I can’t remember what it is… so never mind. I think that’s probably enough for now.

If this resonates with you, I’d love to know. You can drop me a comment, or just take it in quietly. I hope it’s helpful. And if that’s you, I hope you find somewhere that feels right. I’m excited to think you might be taking the next steps in your Christian faith.

That’s it for now. Bye!

---

Thanks for listening. If this spoke to you, I’d love to hear your thoughts in the Comments.

If you don’t want to share, that’s fine, I just hope there was something helpful here.