Can I follow Jesus without joining a church?

Yes—and I want to sit with you in the honesty of that question, because it is a brave one to ask. Jesus said, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them" (Matthew 18:20, KJV)—but notice what he did not say. He did not say a building, a hierarchy, a membership roll, or a sanctioned authority. The living church is not made of stone and offices; it is the community, however small, that keeps asking after truth. When Jesus was asked where the Kingdom would come, he answered, "The kingdom of God cometh not with observation... for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you" (Luke 17:20-21, KJV). That is the heart of it: the deepest church is interior. "The kingdom of God is inside of you, and it is outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known" (Gospel of Thomas 3.4-5). Jesus himself questioned received religious structures, deepening and even overturning what the temple authorities held sacred; a true follower does the same. Sacraments and gatherings carry only the meaning you bring to them—they are not the price of admission to God, for you were never separated from God to begin with. So no institution stands between you and the Father. And yet—do not mistake solitude for isolation. Something real happens when seekers gather in earnest, encouraging one another to keep the door of questioning open, for a faith that never speaks to another can quietly close in on itself. Seek the silence within, where "your Father which seeth in secret" already knows you (Matthew 6:6, KJV)—and, when you find them, walk beside others who are also awake and asking. Both paths are Jesus' path; neither requires a wall or a steeple. If it would help, I can sit with you in what this looks like day to day.