Christian couple with a difference in the intensity of their spiritual and religious practices: how can they grow spiritually together?

Hello,

I am currently in a relationship with a man who was born and raised in the Church. He has always had a prayer life, albeit a fluctuating one, and he stopped attending church regularly during his teenage years.

As for me, I was baptized in my early twenties and since then I have attended church almost every Sunday, in addition to other activities during the week. I have a fairly consistent prayer life, and I want to live a relationship rooted in Christ, which is also what this man wants.

Since the beginning of our relationship, he has expressed a desire to reconnect with Christ and to become more spiritually involved, both in our relationship and on a personal level.

I encourage him in this endeavor. I suggest that we pray together or exchange meditations via text message, and I recommend churches located near his home.

As we are currently in a long-distance relationship, we are unable to go to church together, otherwise I would have suggested it.

Here are my questions:

1) I feel like I am the one who initiates everything related to God in our relationship (prayers, discussions, etc.) and I would like that to change, but I don’t know how. I realize that we don’t have the same level of spiritual and religious practice, but I would just like him to take the initiative more often on his own.

2) He told me he wanted to be baptized, but he hasn’t visited any churches to find out how to go about it. He told me he wanted to spend time praying together as a couple, but unless I suggest praying when we spend time together on FaceTime, he doesn’t suggest it. There is a real gap between what he says and what he does, and it’s starting to frustrate me. I talked to my loved ones about it, but they told me to let him go at his own pace and not to confront him about it because it would put pressure on him. I don’t want to put pressure on him, I just want to point out his inconsistencies in this area.

3) In my church and among my friends, there are many couples who started out with a big difference in their religious practices (one is baptized and goes to church and the other is not), but over time, they have reached a similar level of practice and commitment, particularly by attending church together, which I cannot do with him given the distance. So what should I do?