I grew up in a Baptist church too. I've been going it alone spiritually for a while now, and while I certainly agree church and a relationship with God are not mutually inclusive, I also think that it's a lot harder to nurture a relationship with God by myself. I'm trying to find a good community here at school that can play the role church used to. I didn't realize how important community was until I left mine. It's surprisingly hard to find any friends who take God seriously outside of one. Are you involved in some non-church God-oriented community?
I've found that meditation helps with that. But yeah, having a community does help with growth in every respect I've noticed. I do have my girlfriend who has similar views so at least that's another person. I haven't really thought to look for a group. How do even search for that? "Seeking Spiritual People to Pursue Personal Growth" That could work...
Yeah no problem. I'd try calm.com as a good starting point. It's guided, but it'll definitely get you into the right mind frame. There are different ways of going about meditation I've noticed. You can either try and clear your mind (what I typically do), or focus on God. Either way, it's very soothing and gets you into the present. That's the hardest thing I've found, is to clear my mind so much that I'm not focusing on anything but meditating, but it's good practice. Yeah, the only thing about those though is that you might get into too much Christian dogma that could potentially bog down the actual message. But it's definitely worth a shot.