Benny Perez Thinking Like Jesus Changes Everything
Sitting across from Pastor Benny Perez, you quickly realize this isn’t your typical church leader. Co-pastor of ChurchLV in Las Vegas with his wife Wendy, Benny leads a congregation of over 5,000 members. But what strikes you most isn’t the numbers. It’s the rawness. The honesty. The willingness to say what most pastors won’t.
“I used to think: if she changes, we get better,” he admits, grinning at the uncomfortable truth. “Nobody wants to say amen to that one, but we all think it. ”That mindset shift, from “she changes” to “I change,” became the catalyst for transformation in his 25-year marriage and everything he now teaches about kingdom living.
FOUR AREAS OF INTIMACY
Through their journey, Benny and Wendy identified four critical areas every couple needs to cultivate: intellectual connection through stimulating conversations, emotional safety where feelings can be shared without judgment, spiritual unity in faith and prayer, and physical intimacy that flows naturally when the other three are thriving.
“I’m Mr. Fix-It. Any fixers out there?Okay, the rest of you are lying,” Benny jokes about the emotional intimacy piece. “But sometimes she doesn’t need me to fix it. She just needs me to listen, to empathize. That was hard for me to learn.”
FROM DEFENSIVE TO OPEN
If Benny could rewind 25 years, he’d make one major change: “I would be less defensive and more open. Maybe what Wendy is trying to tell me isn’t something I have to be defensive about. I just need to be open and hear her out.”
His accounting background made him think sequentially. Wendy, the creative artist and singer, processes differently. “We complement each other,” he explains. “But I had to learn that different doesn’t mean wrong. It means we see things from angles the other one misses.”
The breakthrough came when he stopped trying to defend his position and started getting curious about hers.
BELIEVING VS. THINKING LIKE JESUS
The transformation in Benny’s marriage mirrors the revelation that’s become central to his coaching: “Believing in Jesus gets you saved. Thinking like Jesus gets you free.”
It’s a distinction he wishes he’d understood 24 years ago.
“So many of us have been taught about believing. I’m saved, I’m born again. And then you get into the real world and you’re finding out that people who aren’t even in a relationship with Jesus are thinking on a whole other plane. They’re thinking in a different realm.”
His mentor’s words changed everything: “God’s opinion of you makes man’s opinion irrelevant.”
“When I began to realize that, I began to say, ‘You know what? As I change, we get better.’ Because I used to think she needed to change. And I realized I need to change. I need to think like Him because I’m created to be like Him. As He is, so are we in this earth.”
THE HOLY SPIRIT AS YOUR BUSINESS PARTNER
Benny’s early morning routine reflects this commitment to divine guidance. Every day at 6 a.m., he hosts “Live with Benny Perez” on Instagram, a Kingdom First session helping people center theirlives before the chaos begins.
“The Holy Spirit in me is for me, but He’s on me for you,” Benny explains. “The Holy Spirit dwelling in me leads and guides me. But the anointing on me isn’t for me. It’s for you. My gift of communication isn’t for me. I don’t get up and motivate myself in the mirror for 35 minutes. It’s for the thousands of people at our church.”
Every breakthrough, in business, in church, in marriage, has come from listening to that voice.
A GOD DREAM BIGGER THAN YOUR LIFETIME
When asked about his vision for the future, Benny shares a powerful perspective: “A God dream will not be fulfilled in your lifetime but through your lifeline.”
That lifeline includes his kids, their companies, and the people they mentor. “They’re going to do far greater than we ever could. Why? Because we’re giving them our wisdom, which helps them collapse time and achieve more in less time.”
It’s this multigenerational thinking that drives his passion for young people. “They just want to learn. But here’s what I’ve learned: they want to know if you care first. So I want to care for the individual. I don’t want to think, ‘What can I get from them?’ As we invest in them, love on them, help them, I feel compelled to encourage them.”
WHAT THE WORLD CHASES, THE KINGDOM ATTRACTS
“The world’s chasing this, the world’s chasing that,” Benny says. “What the world chases, the kingdom attracts. Seek first the kingdom and His righteousness, and all these other things will be added to you.”
It’s not just theology. It’s his operating system. “I’m looking for things to be added this year in our marriage, not taken away. In our businesses, God’s going to add, multiply, do some greater things. But it all starts with how you’re thinking.”
Romans 12:2 in the New Living Translation has become his life verse: “God will change you into another person by changing the way you think.”
“That’s the kingdom difference,” he emphasizes. “Not ‘this changes, then I’ll change.’ No. When I change, my circumstances and situations change.”
THE ONE REGRET
Ask Benny what he’d tell his younger self, and he doesn’t sugarcoat it: “We waited too long to get professional help.”
He’s talking about professional support for marriage: therapy, coaching, counseling. Now they see a therapist regularly with monthly sessions individually, plus sessions together, and intensive work when they need to go deeper.
“For some people in the church world, they don’t like therapy. Okay, then find an anointed minister of counseling or a coach. Whatever you need. But get help sooner. You don’t change the oil after 100,000 miles; you change it after 7,500.”
His voice gets serious: “Monthly maintenance, people. It took us 25 years to figure that out. 25 years, people!”
ONE CHASES A THOUSAND, TWO CHASE TEN THOUSAND
Throughout our conversation, Benny keeps returning to this biblical principle: when you’re walking in unity with God and with your partner, there’s a multiplication effect.
“One will chase a thousand, but two will chase ten thousand. That’s not just math. That’s the multiplication anointing.”
From 27 people in their living room to a megachurch. From pastoring alone to coaching globally.
“We see it as a mission, as a God man date. We’re still growing in it, learning. And I’m saying, ‘God, change me.’ As He changes me, we have a better marriage. We have a better business partnership together.”
The Kingdom First methodology they teach isn’t about religious performance. It’s about practical transformation: changing how you think so you can change how you live.
“That’s what we’re praying for,” Benny says with conviction. “Greater intimacy in relationships. Kingdom connections that multiply around the nation and the world.”
And when you’re sitting across from him, hearing the passion in his voice, seeing the transformation in his 25-year marriage, you believe it’s possible.
Because when someone stops waiting for everyone else to change and starts changing themselves, that’s when everything shifts.
By Joseph Trujillo
