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Ten Church Acts You Can Do by Yourself | On Church

This blog post is part of a larger blog series called On Church that attempts to provide a balanced perspective on how we could be the church in a more impactful way.


Did you know that there is no church building mentioned in the Bible, at all? Much like the idea of building a stone temple for God, the idea of church buildings are human creations resulting from historical circumstances, including Constantine’s conversion to Christianity for himself and, later, the Roman Empire. The Biblical church (ekklesia) is not a building, but a group of people called out of the world by God; these people originally gathered in their own houses and sometimes in tents. However, sometimes even that was not possible!

“The Biblical church (ekklesia) is not a building, but a group of people called out of the world by God…”

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That’s why God designed a majority of “church acts” to be able to be done alone—just you and God—anywhere you are, in any situation you are. Whether you are in a house prison like Paul, a deserted island like John, an underground church like Nympha, or the only believer you know in your whole country like one of my Turkish friends, you can perform these church acts to grow your understanding of your walk with God.

That’s why I’m sharing some practical tips on how you can walk out your journey with God without having to step foot into a church building or even gather with other believers. My hope is to show you how easy it is for you to start your faith journey and maybe start a house church—by taking personal responsibility for these church acts.

1. Find out about who God is.

I’m pretty sure God blessed the invention of the printing press because it made God’s scriptures accessible everywhere. But even if you can’t afford to buy a Bible, you can get one for free. Also, check out all the Christian resources available at your local public library.

I’m also pretty sure God blessed the creation of the internet because it allows people who would never step foot into a church to hear the good news of the Kingdom of Heaven:

  • Thank you also internet video streaming channels with peoples testimonies about how they got saved, and how God turned around their lives. Search for “My testimony” or “How Jesus saved me” or “What is the good news?”
  • Thank you, podcasts and audiobooks, for making it so easy to listen to God Stories, sermons, and even apologetics while we are doing manual labor (like my husband did while running a ranch and harvesting bales of hay.)

2. Invite God into your heart and life.

You do not need to wait for an invitation from a pastor, a priest, or go through a six week course to believe in the power of the Christian faith: a good Father God, who sent Yeshua to become a reverse nuclear bomb for you, so that you can be continually filled with the Holy Spirit to lead you into a complete transformation of your body, soul, and spirit. You can do that just by imagining opening the front door of your house to God and saying, “Come into my life, God. I’ll follow you wherever you go.” God will do the rest.

You also don’t need to perform any ritual (like baptism or communion or confirmation) to start your journey with God. Neither do you need to have your walk “approved” or “certified” by anyone else to become a believer and follower of God. Don’t wait—start today!

3. Be baptized in water and in the spirit.

The act of water baptism is a picture of the act of spirit baptism. Both indicate that you want every part of you, inside and outside, to be soaked in the presence of God. But you don’t have to wait until “Baptism Sunday” to make it happen!

In modern America, you probably have access to a bathtub, a pool, a shower, a river, a lake, or even a garden hose. Even a small sprinkling of water from the faucet will work if that’s all you can find. If you can, find another believer and ask them to baptize (submerge you) with water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. You will be filled with water on the outside. Then, ask them to lay hands on you and baptize (submerge you) with the Holy Spirit and fire. You will be filled with spirit in the inside.

If you don’t know any other believers, you can just do this by yourself and ask God to do both baptisms. Ask God what he wants you to say or do and obey the first spontaneous thought that comes to you (not the second or third thought.)

4. Take holy communion.

Communion is a picture of what Yeshua does for us on the cross. It helps you understand and access “The Great Exchange” of darkness for light.

Grab a piece of bread or cracker as well as a cup of wine or grape juice (or even water). Thank God for the bread and the body of Yeshua, then eat it. Thank God for the wine and the blood of Yeshua, then drink it. Ask God to explain the importance of each and write down the first spontaneous thoughts you hear.

5. Offer help to your neighbors, the needy, & God’s workers.

You don’t need to attend a local church to share your time, money, and resources with God. You can just ask God where, when, and how he/she wants you to use your resources. You also don’t need to be limited to giving God a tithe (10%) or giving to only a local church. You can even learn how to give God 100% just by how you live. Your tithe doesn’t belong to the local church congregation; it belongs to God, so God should tell you how and when to use it—even if that means on a vacation for yourself.

6. Receive teaching about how to heal and mature in your body, soul, and spirit.

Between books, blogs, video streaming, and podcasts, there is no shortage of teaching on how to walk out your faith journey with God. That’s the good news! However, they are not all for you or all for right now. It can feel daunting to figure out who to learn from and who to believe—especially when some people argue so vehemently against each other’s beliefs—but you have the Holy Spirit to guide you. God speaks through spontaneous thoughts, desires, and even giving you a sense of peace (among other ways). Follow the peace in your heart, until you see the choices you make change your life.

Remember, the Holy Spirit is our number one teacher, and sometimes, she points us to human teachers to help us—but not always. She must remain number one at all times—especially when something your favorite human teacher says goes against what she has said to you. Follow God above man (to the best of your ability) always.

7. Worship God through art.

Although it is pretty cool to see the artistic explosion that happened in the Renaissance period in visual art, as well as the performing arts explosion that happened in the 1970s to 90s, you don’t need to be in a beautiful Catholic Church in front of the stations of the cross sculptures or in a less beautiful Protestant church in front of a band with full A/V set-up to worship God.

Thanks to video and music streaming apps, as well as art blogs and portfolios, you can be in the presence of artistic expressions of worship through painting, sculpture, poetry, music, and dancing.

Or—my favorite—go out into nature! There is nothing like taking in the beauty of the natural world (far away from the hum of cars and the view of buildings obstructing the skyline) to remind you that God is worthy to be worshipped! Let the chirps of birds, the sound of flowing water, the sight of wildflowers, or the feel of wind on your skin remind you how big God really is and how much he/she values beauty in all its diverse forms!

8. Heal the sick, raise the dead, set captives free.

You don’t need an 8-week class about how to do the things people did in the Bible. You can just try it, and try it again, and try it again a different way until it works. That’s how you learned to walk, and that’s how you’ll learn how to release the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, too. Why? Because there is no Junior Holy Spirit, so the same Spirit that raised Yeshua from the dead lives in you.

Yeshua told his first followers that these signs would follow those who believe and that we would eventually do even more than that when we receive the Holy Spirit. Yielding to God and looking at the hurting with compassion are the foundations of this. This is a form of prayer, but certainly not the only one.

9. Hear from God.

You don’t need to speak with a priest or pastor, a prophet or an apostle, a Bible teacher or preacher to hear from God. You have the Holy Spirit inside you! So you will hear God speak from within you! There are over a dozen ways God speaks to people, and chances are you will start by realizing you’ve been hearing God in one or two of those ways. Over time, you can increase the number of ways you hear from God.

If you don’t believe you can hear from God, just remember: you wouldn’t even have wanted to walk with God if God hadn’t “called” you, as in “spoken to you with invitation”. You didn’t do that; God spoke to you and you heard it and you obeyed. If you did it once, you can certainly do it again.

10. Share your God Story with others.

You don’t need to stand on the front alter or stage of a church with a microphone or on a pedestal to share what God is doing in your life. Thanks to the miracle of social media, you can share your own God Stories of what God is doing in your life with everyone in your online circle. Thanks to the miracle of mobile phones, you can call, text, or video chat with anyone you know to tell them in person. There’s no need to force yourself to do it; but if you hear God nudging you to do it, do your best. The outcome does not have to be seeing that person accept Yeshua or even believe you, but you don’t know what God will do with what you shared with them. Just do it, and leave the rest to God.


Owning Your Walk with God

Wow! Ten major things you can do to move your walk with God forward, and you don’t need a church building to do any of them! You also don’t need to know any other believers to do them. Sometimes, God wants to teach us him/herself before we meet other believers so that we don’t adopt their mistakes as truth.

So… just trust God-in-you to do the work. I do!

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