This one’s a doozy. No opinions were harmed in the making of this message, though several may have been mildly offended. Side effects may include deep soul-searching, a newfound love for ecclesiology, and the irresistible urge to ask your Bible study leader, “So… who’s your pastor?”

In the age of podcasts, parachurch ministries, livestream fellowships, and well-meaning weeknight Bible studies, many Christians are sailing (so they think) in a sea of Scripture. They’ve got mentors from every nation, tribe and tongue, study notes, Greek apps, daily devotionals, and a dozen bookmarked YouTube sermons. From a distance, it looks like theological richness.

However, if you step a little closer, you’ll notice something alarming. Many of these believers are slowly drifting from the harbour God designed to anchor them to – the local church.

Imagine that. Bible studies that take you away from Bible mandates. A passion for theology that pulls you away from the very people Christ died to gather. An appetite for the Word that forgets the household of faith.

Now at first, this may sound like a strange warning to some. Who in their right mind would be suspicious of more Bible study? Isn’t more teaching, more discussion, more fellowship, more gospel-rich content a good thing? And to that we say, Yes, and no. Yes, when it strengthens your life in the body. Yes, when it drives you deeper into the covenantal life of the local church. But no, when it becomes a substitute for what Christ Himself has ordained.

The issue here is not Bible study itself. The issue is what happens when Bible study becomes unchurched, unattached, and untethered from the very place God has appointed for discipleship – the local church. It’s the habit of pursuing spiritual formation apart from the very people, structure, and shepherds that Christ has called to oversee your formation.

The church is not a side-hustle to your spiritual life. It is the arena of discipleship. And Bible study is not a freelance ministry. It is the engine room of the church’s mission to teach, form, and mature believers.

So, when Christians regularly attend these ad-hoc Bible studies that are entirely disconnected from the oversight and rhythms of their local church, they are communicating something, whether they mean to or not. They are communicating that discipleship can be done better elsewhere. That Bible formation is a private project rather than a public covenant. That Christianity no longer needs a local church. And over time, this subtle shift in practice forms a profound drift in allegiance.

We are now seeing the rise of a generation of believers who are highly opinionated, loosely tethered, and spiritually vulnerable. They know some doctrines, but they don’t know their elders. They love the Word (so they say), but they don’t love the saints. They attend studies, but not services. They chase insight, but avoid accountability. They are passionate about truth (so they say) but cold toward the body that is the pillar and buttress of truth.

In short, one of the great causes of spiritual drift in our day are Bible Studies.

And the only remedy that I see is to re-church the study. Reattach the disciple to the body. Rebuild what Christ never intended to be separated. Because the church is not one ministry among many. It is the pillar and buttress of the truth (1 Tim. 3:15). And if we want to be people who pay “much closer attention” (Hebrews 2:1) to the Word we’ve heard, we must do so together, as those who are covenanted, accountable, and anchored to the people of God in the local church.

Hebrews Warns Us About Drift

“Therefore we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it.”

Hebrews 2:1

I recently preached a sermon on this passage. You can find here. In it, I explain how this warning is not a warning against a sudden full-blown departure from Christian truth. It is a warning against drift. The subtle, slow, respectable slide away from gospel-centered, Christ-exalting, church-anchored faith. This kind of drift does not happen overnight. It happens when we stop paying close (or rather, much closer) attention to the Word spoken in Christ.

And the author of Hebrews is clear, the context for that kind of attention is corporate. He says “we” must pay attention, not “you,” not “I,” but we, the gathered people of God. The warning here is not about “my” drift or “your” drift, but “we” – our drift. I believe Hebrews 2:1 is more concerned with a congregational fallout, and not an individual drift.

A striking modern example of this kind of drift can be seen in the rise of these dislocated Bible studies. Gatherings that take place apart from the oversight, rhythm, and accountability of the local church. These studies may be sincere, and often helpful to many individuals. And if you evaluate them one-on-one, you’ll always find someone who says, “I was blessed,” or “It changed my life.” But that’s precisely the danger. Drift rarely looks dangerous up close. It feels helpful. It feels biblical. But when you step back and observe the trajectory at a cultural level, the damage becomes clearer.

These studies are not anchored in a covenant community. They do not lead people toward membership, submission to elders, or the sacramental life of the church. Over time, they encourage a theological individualism, a Christianity that prizes insight over obedience, content over covenant, and study over submission. The more such gatherings multiply, the more Christians begin to see the church as optional, outdated, or even an obstacle to “real” spiritual growth.

So while individual participants may benefit in isolated ways, the larger impact is often one of dislocation and drift. The net result is a subtle undermining of the church’s role in the life of the believer, a shifting tide that pulls Christians out of the harbour Christ designed to hold them.

The solution to such drift is not more scattered studies, but stronger churches. A lot of people have bought into the lie of discipleship outside the local church that they retain a nominal connection to the church, just enough to access the benefits – a venue for communion, a place to baptise their kids, and a burial plot when they die (that’s such an important one for so many people). But their actual discipleship? That happens elsewhere. Online, midweek, off-site, and off-grid. This arrangement offers all the perks of church membership with none of the burden of real accountability. It lets them dabble in whatever fellowship feels most convenient while avoiding the hard work of planting themselves in a healthy, biblical church, especially if that church might offend their relatives, challenge their preferences, or demand their obedience.

Drift doesn’t always look like rebellion. Sometimes it looks like a Bible study without a church.

Why Detached Bible Studies Lead to Drift

The church is not a bonus feature of the Christian life—it is the main context for Christian formation.

• It’s where the Word is preached with authority (2 Tim. 4:2).
• It’s where discipline guards doctrine (1 Cor. 5:12–13).
• It’s where the sacraments are rightly administered (Acts 2:42).
• It’s where pastors watch over souls (Heb. 13:17).
• It’s where the body builds itself up in love (Eph. 4:16).

In other words, the church isn’t just where we learn about Jesus, it’s where we learn to live as His people.

When believers prioritise Bible studies apart from the local church, they often unknowingly train both themselves and others to value a kind of detached piety over covenantal discipleship. What begins as a pursuit of personal growth quietly erodes the God-ordained safeguards of communal accountability, pastoral care, and covenantal belonging.

And that is precisely how drift begins.

1. They Create a Culture of Theological Consumerism

Parachurch ministries often claim to support the church, but they quietly foster a marketplace of theological pick-and-choose as students bounce from EU (a sort of InterVarsity in India) to a midweek Zoom study to a Campus Crusade gatherings.

They tend to attract spiritual shoppers, Christians looking for the next big insight or favourite speaker. Though many churches themselves now cater to this model too, offering spiritual goods without requiring any spiritual responsibility, the difference is in the structure of the biblical church that calls for covenant, for rootedness, submission, and mutual commitment. The church doesn’t merely exist to serve you, but for you to serve it, and for you to be formed by it. The relationships that are formed in this biblical structure is not replicable in the ad-hoc Bible study in your living room. Your Bible study leader is not your Pastor.

Romans 12:5: “So we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” No other institution can reflect this reality more biblically than the local church.

2. They Disciple Without Discipline

Many parachurch ministries excel at energy and engagement, but where is the accountability? No elders. No membership. No meaningful church discipline. Though many local churches have abandoned these very things too, there is the hope of reforming such churches. But getting parachurch ministries to do the same is to convert them into local churches. When they reach for the benefits of a local church without the God ordained structures of the local church, they end up creating an artificial environment that does not bless overall, but damages the body of Christ.

Discipline is love. It is the spiritual safety net God built into the church. Hebrews 13:17: “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls…” A campus leader or small group facilitator may care for you. But they are not those whom God has appointed to “give an account” for your soul.

The church is not a study group. It’s a people under shepherds, guided by Christ. Bible studies may exercise the authority to teach and encourage, but they cannot exercise the authority to discipline because there are no pastors or elders there. And when they exercise such authority nevertheless, they have begun to function as a local church. Somebody might as well just throw in some liturgy, break bread and make their leader wear a bishop’s hat.

3. They Divide Allegiance

When Christians are more bonded to a parachurch leader or small group than to the elders of their local church, the question of spiritual authority becomes confused. Who shepherds you? Who teaches you? Where is your spiritual home?

Again, Hebrews 13:17 makes it plain – “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they are keeping watch over your souls, as those who will have to give an account.” Or, Ephesians 4:11–13 – “And he gave… the shepherds and teachers, to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ…”But EU leaders, campus fellowship heads, and small group mentors are not shepherds in the biblical sense. They are not accountable before God for your soul, and yet many Christians give them more spiritual loyalty than they do their own pastors.

This is not harmless. It’s an ecclesiological drift. And it produces Christians who are emotionally committed to parachurch fellowships while remaining nominal, passive, or even cynical toward their own local churches.

4. They Lack Christ’s Ordained Means of Grace

The local church is not just one ministry among many. It is the very household of God (1 Timothy 3:15), the pillar and buttress of the truth. It is where God’s people gather under preaching, receive the sacraments, are shepherded by elders, and are bound together by covenant.

Parachurch groups may offer teaching and fellowship, but they cannot provide the ordinary means of grace that Christ has given His people:

• The pulpit: Preaching that forms and feeds (Romans 10:17).
• The table: Communion with Christ and one another (1 Corinthians 10:16–17).
• The font: Baptism that marks our entry into the covenant community (Matthew 28:19).
• The rod and staff: Church discipline that guards holiness and restores sinners (Matthew 18:15–17).

A Bible study without these is like a hospital without surgery or medicine, lots of talk, no healing. You may study the Bible for hours, but without the church, you are not being formed into the image of Christ as He intended.

Now, there’s no point in pretending that local churches are always blameless. Many churches today have adopted the same consumeristic instincts and entertainment-driven discipleship as the very parachurch ministries I’m critiquing here. But here’s the critical difference, God designed the local church as the primary structure for discipleship, sanctification, and spiritual oversight. Parachurch groups, no matter how sincere, are not that.

It’s not about whether a group feels deep or insightful. It’s about whether it reflects the structures and responsibilities Christ has ordained. The church isn’t just one option among many for spiritual growth, it’s God’s appointed means. The danger of these groups, then, is not their existence, but their displacement of the local church. Parachurch ministries can be helpful when they serve the church. But when they substitute the church, when they disciple without elders, form without membership, and feed without means of grace, they become a danger. They are not merely aiding the church, they are robbing her blind.

Let’s get back to port.

Let’s return to the local church.

I believe the drift is visible all around us. You’ll spot it among most church goers whose parachurch memberships have more pull than pastors. Where the true north is Thursday night Bible study and Sunday morning service is optional. This is why it was so easy for so many to go into Covid lockdown and Sunday mornings be the least of their concerns. This is why many still live under lockdown on Sundays preferring online services to physical attendance. Many pastors justify live streaming for the sake of their congregants who can’t make it genuinely, but in doing so are catering a bigger drift because it inevitably feeds the consumeristic mentality in all the congregants.

We’ve created a generation of Christians who are theologically caffeinated but ecclesiologically comatose.

Always learning, never belonging. Sometimes doctrinally rich (if the Bible studies are actually good, which they rarely are), always covenantally bankrupt.

So what’s the solution? Leave discipleship to the local church. The fix isn’t less study, it’s more submission. Not fewer conversations, but deeper covenants. Let every Bible study fly the flag of a local church, not a parachurch pirate ship. Because Christ didn’t shed His blood to create floating theological fellowships. He died to purchase a bride. A gathered people. A church. So when we drift from the church, we aren’t just leaving a building, we are abandoning Christ’s design for our discipleship. We are ghosting the very body we’re meant to grow in.

Hebrews 2:1 still warns us: “We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away.”

So don’t drift. Come home to Christ, and to the local church He gave you.