The church dedicated to the holy apostle and evangelist John the Theologian is one of the last examples of wooden architecture in the Kursk region. It is located 16 km north of the city of Sudzha, in the administrative center of the village on flat terrain.

Historical documents indicate that at the turn of the 17th-18th centuries, the village of Mala Loknya was already an established settlement. This suggests that it was founded as a watch settlement for service people, Cossacks, an entire hundred. In the last quarter of the 18th century, there was already a wooden church in Mala Loknya dedicated to the Theologian.

By the mid-19th century, the old church had fallen into disrepair, and it was decided to build a new one. The wooden building of the Theological church that has survived to this day was erected in 1857 with funds from landowners Alexandra Pavlovna Davydova and Anna Vasilyevna Durova, who are buried in the local cemetery.

Records from the clerical documents of 1916 describe the church as a wooden building on a stone foundation with a bell tower, covered with iron. The church had one altar in the name of St. John the Theologian. The church's land holdings included estate land and arable land. The houses for the clergy were located on church land, but their condition varied: the priest's house needed repairs, while the deacon's house was in satisfactory condition.

The church's parish covered many surrounding settlements, including Mala Loknya, the villages of Kruglenko, Pogrebki, Stara and Nova Sorochina, the hamlets of Nikolsky and Naidin, the villages of Nikolaevka, Novoivanovka, Lyovshinka, and the village of Staroe Gatišče. After the loss of the wooden church of the Prophet Daniel in the 19th century, the village of Viktorovka also joined the parish.

The parish operated four zemstvo schools: in Mala Loknya (founded in 1875), in the village of Kruglenko (1902), in the hamlet of Nikolsky (1912), and in the village of Nova Sorochina (1915).

In 1933, the church was closed, and the building was converted into a club. The tiers of the bell tower, the dome, and the octagon were removed, and a gable roof was installed.

During the Great Patriotic War, during the occupation, the church reopened for services on July 15, 1942. The church council was registered on August 31, 1944. However, on September 27, 1950, by the decision of the Oblispolkom, the community of believers was closed, and the building was again handed over to the club of the collective farm 'Vostok'.

In the 1990s, the church building in Mala Loknya became deserted, but in the spring of 2012, services resumed in the church.