Now, more so than ever, in the COG universe, the various splinters make steady use of the term "little flock" to make excuses as to why their membership is so low. Is it really because "true" believers are so few or the fact that today's crop of church leaders and ministry are some of the saddest excuses we have ever seen for being representatives of Jesus Christ, that dude most fail to acknowledge 90% of the time?
When a person looks at the stories in Christian scriptures about Jesus feeding the 5,000 and other stories, you can't help but be struck by the deep fascination people had for Jesus and how he was able to draw them in. Whether it was mass groups of people or a few in a room, his dynamic magnetism drew people into a cause that ended up being the largest belief system on earth today. People have been willing to die for that cause.
And yet, here is the Church of God today, struggling to stay alive and relevant in the 21st century.
LCG's Davey Crocket writes:
The Little Flock
The bare trees make a silhouette on the horizon in the winter morning light, beautiful to behold in the cold, clear, crisp air. Not much traffic on a Saturday morning, a far cry from the crowded roadways on weekday commutes for most workers.
The radio news is relatively quiet, except for analysis of the still-ongoing political issues and talk about the big games scheduled for the weekend.
Being out early is a regular routine for traveling ministers, who often make trips to visit the small congregations of the Church of God that are sprinkled around the country and the world. There aren’t enough ministers for each little congregation to have its own pastor, so most of them are served by ministers who make a circuit to visit these small groups. A Sabbath visit from a visiting minister will involve a sermon based on a biblical topic, such as Christian living, prophecy, or the Holy Days—useful, practical messages that are helpful to those who are striving to live by every word of God.
Some will have questions that the minister will try to answer. Some attendees will request prayer and anointing for healing, a practice found in James 5. Fellowshipping goes on until folks must leave for their homes, sometimes quite a distance from where services are held. As they head home, most are already looking forward to the next Sabbath when they can be together again.
Why make these journeys to speak to and serve these people? There are precedents found in the Bible. Down through time, the people dedicated to following God’s way of life have often been few and scattered, as they are today.
In ancient times, the prophet Samuel regularly made a circuit to serve the people. “He went from year to year on a circuit to Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpah, and judged Israel in all those places” (1 Samuel 7:16).
Jesus also used this method: “Then He went about the villages in a circuit, teaching” (Mark 6:6). Later, the Apostle Paul was known for his journeys as he raised up churches and spread the Good News of the Kingdom of God. In 2 Corinthians 11:26, he spoke about being “in journeys often.”
Why do this? Why go to the trouble? Jesus made it plain in His instruction to the Apostle Peter before He ascended into heaven: “So when they had eaten breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter… ‘Feed My lambs…. Tend My sheep…. Feed My sheep’” (John 21:15–17).
So, all around the nation, as in many other parts of the world, there are dedicated ministers who are on the go, making regular visits to small congregations, striving to follow the instructions of Jesus Christ by feeding the flock that God has called. You won’t find these little flocks in large church buildings or in sumptuous surroundings. Mostly, they meet in rented halls, realizing that a church is not a building but the people in the building.
At the end of the day, the bare trees make a beautiful silhouette on the evening winter sky as the circuit-traveling preacher makes his way home, tired, but happy to have been of service to a little flock that was eager to hear what he had to bring them on the Sabbath day.
These little flocks in the COG today are aging members who think they have nowhere else to go and must remain true to what they had originally learned. Very few, if any outside the COG movement are drawn into full membership in the church. Some or many may be fascinated by telecasts and magazine articles but not enough to join them. COG leaders write this off by conveniently claiming "they are not being called at this time."
Are people not being called or is it really a result of ineffectual leaders and ministry spread across the Church of God who have placed their faith in the law while ignoring the one they claim to follow? Christians see through that theological mess and that is why so many of the splinter groups have turned into such failures. They have nothing to offer that sparks the desire for Christ in people's hearts like those that were drawn to him during his lifetime.
