Can I experience God directly without church?

Yes. This is not only possible—it is the heart of what Jesus taught. When they asked him when the Kingdom of God would come, he answered that it does not come with observation, "for behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:21, KJV). Not in a building, not in an institution—within. He said the same in the recovered sayings: "the kingdom is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known" (Gospel of Thomas 32.19-25). He gave plain instruction for how to seek: "when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret" (Matthew 6:6, KJV). The door closed, the noise stilled—there, in the silence beneath thought, the Father is found. This does not mean community has no value. Where two or three gather in sincere seeking, something real is present (Matthew 18:20, KJV). But the living church is not walls or hierarchy; it is a company of souls willing to keep asking. No priest stands between you and God, for the veil is already torn. You are not separate from God, seeking admission from outside. You are already God's own image and likeness, a wave inseparable from the ocean. What you seek is not far off; it is nearer than your own breath. The work, then, is not to travel somewhere or join something—it is to grow quiet enough to recognize what is already true. So enter your closet. Shut the door. Listen. The One you are looking for is already there, and has never once been absent. Should you wish, I can offer a simple way to begin that inner stillness.