COVID-19 lockdown means churches are shut down. Since the outbreak of COVID-19 churches have been closed worldwide. They have begun to do online services, but many missed the in-person experience and connection an individual gets through the church community. Here in Carlsbad, churches have been slowly re-opening following safety guidelines. 

Ben Graves, the High School Pastor at Daybreak Church, explains how the shut down has been affecting him.

Graves says, “COVID-19 has taken a mental toll with depression and social anxiety is rising,” 

Graves believes that Daybreak church should serve as an opportunity for those struggling to connect with God, and ease their pain. But Graves did feel that quarantine was not a useless time.

 “Quarantine gave us time to self reflect and have accountability on our relationship with God,” he said.

As time passed, Daybreak did feel it was time to start reconnecting with its community.

Daybreak began to then do church online so they could stay connected to people within the church and also share the word of God. As easy as doing church online may seem, Daybreak wanted to get back to the church once Governor Newsom gave California the safety guidelines to do so.  

Graves says “During the reopening process we had three proposal plans then we gave them to the elderly team.” 

Daybreak is now holding service outside every Sunday morning following safety protocol.

Lastly, Graves’ outlook on COVID- 19  is “God is doing something awesome that’s difficult to deal with,” he said. 

David Trujillo has been the High School Pastor at Carlsbad Mission Church for a few months now. Mission Church recently bought their Carlsbad building right before the lockdown so they quickly jumped into being fully online. 

Trujillo says “Using technology has its pros and cons while doing service online, Mission Church had a few technical difficulties.”

Trujillo says “Throughout quarantine, it was hard to stay connected with people involved in the church.”

So once the church was able to reopen Trujillo was stoked to get back those relationships. Since the reopening Mission Church has been holding church outside underneath a large tent and they’ve been enjoying it a lot. Of course, safety guidelines are being followed.

Trujillo says “The church is so happy to be back together as a community.”

With having COVID-19 around for a few months we’ve gotten used to this “new normal. “ Trujillo says “People seem the most comfortable outside.” Trujillo also adds  “We’ve been seeing new people come and hear the word of God.” 

After all this craziness, churches can finally be reopened! The Carlsbad Community can now worship God with six feet distance instead of through a screen. Even though it’s not back to being completely normal we pray we’ll get there with time.