By Pastor Robert Perez

I am proud to announce that I will be officially starting my new church in the coming months. Details will emerge, but for now I wish not to discuss developing ideas before they are ready. The manifestation of an idea into a running organization takes many iterations during development and is best reveled at the right time.

The most important underlying principle of my ‘church’ is that it will be churchless, i.e. without a physical location. One of the many errors in Christian development has been the reliance on physical structures, together with people such as priests and pastors (myself included), for the maintenance of Christian faith in people. Although this is a necessity for education and guidance, it is as if the Christian world only exists within those church walls. Many faith driven people will argue fervently against this, but one need only to be ‘on the ground’ to see how faith virtually disappears outside these institutions that are supposed to create Christians who believe no matter where they go or who they’re with.

A pastors one true mission is to get you to connect with God and eventually transcend the need of anyone or anything for your continued relationship with God. The person who doesn’t need a church is truly manifesting the spirit of God.

The Bible is all you need, as it contains all the necessary information for understanding Jesus’ teachings. Repeated reading and practice are something that we all must do to gain the wisdom contained therein. There are no shortcuts. It’s a lifetime pursuit. The ‘Christian Fix’ culture of Sunday worship does not work. Many of these institutions rely on your constant need of them for their selfish continuance. I ask you, how is that Jesus’ message? Well, you don’t need them; you only need God!

I am only a teacher, not a leader. I am not the one to be worshiped, Jesus is. Anyone who desires to be a ‘leader of a church’ may be sincere in their caring for their parishioners, but if they do not make them self-reliant, they have failed their mission.

Church is not the same as community. Christian community is a collective of souls that believe in God. We are always One Soul in Christ. But we are not required to make proof of that before God by congregating in the same building, especially if we only come together when in that building, and dissolve physically and in our hearts as we disperse back to our own lives.

We must remember the symbolic nature of Christ as the body of the church. We are under His guidance regardless of where we are. Be true to God and follow Christ genuinely and you will have your place in His church. Christ and God are one and the same and with you every moment of your existence and beyond.

In the early days of the Christian movement it was necessary for people to come together in homes and private dwellings, and later in churches, as places for education about Christ, which was completely new to many people, and to then share in their experience of this new love. Community spaces were also formed to share news of developments that affected them in practical ways.

Worship was taught and understood to be something you did throughout your day all day long.

Many Hebrew traditions fostered rituals that carried over into Christian worship and practice. These carry-overs were debated repeatedly by the Apostles and first fathers of the church for their relevance, but Paul made it most clear when he stated that ultimately none of it matters except for the substance of your heart. Your outward appearances mean nothing without your soul being genuinely connected to God. Hence, if you have a soul tethered to God you don’t need a church or a pastor or rituals.

There was a time when being a Christian meant something. It automatically bonded all believers together, regardless of what country you came from, your age, your wealth, or what place you worshiped in. When people of that time traveled and it was learned that you were a Christian you were immediately, without questions asked, pulled into the family of believers of that community. That is The Way of Christ. That is the only way of Christ. We are one!

Nowadays, the church and the Pastor hold more power in the minds of the believers than Christ himself. “We’re part of this church, not that church.” It blows my mind the cult-like loyalty to pastors and churches that exist today, although it shouldn’t, as they probably always existed. Again, Paul made it clear that you are not to follow anything except the words of Christ.

We’re all one in Christ! Follow Christ, not your Pastor.

The power of Christ does not reside solely in your pastor or church, no matter who they are, from the Pope to the televangelist. If so, you are venerating a man before you are venerating God. The true believer and true follower of Christ needs only himself and his personal relationship with Christ and God. Let your faith be true regardless of your circumstances. Nothing can stand in the way of your relationship with God except your misunderstandings and misplaced attentions.

The people of the Bible looked straight to heaven for the answers. They asked directly, not through a mediator. Free yourself from man-made requirements of worship. God is for you. Christ is for you. I am only a resource to help when needed, nothing more.

Church rituals and practices have replaced genuine connection with silly behaviors that most people do out of obligation while probably thinking of something else. You want the proof? Look inside yourself to see how much you do genuinely. “It’s Easter, gotta go to church!” “Wake up honey, Sunday is for God.” Such non-sense. Billions of Christians have been duped and are blindly pretending; play acting like Christians.

You wonder why more people don’t come to Christ and God? Because they see right through the cult mentality. Give people direct access to God and let them be.

You don’t want to be a part of the cultures prevalent in Christendom today? You don’t want to be part of a revival; stand up, sit down and say x-number of hymns? Some would say, “OK, go somewhere else.” True! But each institution insists that they hold the keys to your spiritual future. They can’t all be right! You know why? Because none of them are right!

Your connection with God and Christ is a wholly personal place, one that you don’t have to reveal to anyone if you don’t want to. It’s nobody’s business! Granted, it is hoped that if God is tethered to your soul that you would want to share some of that with others so they may come to it too.

If you prefer the atmosphere and community of a church, that’s fine. But be very aware of the difference between wanting to be there and needing to be there or worshiping God and worshiping your Pastor. You never need anything other than your own heart to be connected to God.

I wish to develop genuine spiritual seekers of God and warriors against evil. People who when they say they are a Christian hold their heads higher and know that any and all fellow Christians are part of the same family. God knows the difference. He knows if your feeling obliged or if you are genuine. He knows the truth in your heart.

As for me, forget about me the moment you understand. Paul said, “I am nothing.” He wrote half the Bible, yet continually spoke of how he is nothing. Because Paul’s soul mission was to point you to God, not to him. And Paul, was the greatest of us all. If he is nothing, we are less than nothing.

Gods seeks those who seek Him, not through a church or any person, but alone in the dark and quiet spaces of your mind, heart and soul.