The Beginning
Commonwealth Church is a dream that has lived in our hearts for decades - a church that would lead people toward encountering Jesus, finding their place in His family (the local church), and stepping into His mission. The beginning of this dream becoming a reality took place in early 2017. We launched Commonwealth Church with its first public gathering near downtown San Diego on February 26th of that year. Over the course of the next three years, Commonwealth grew and reached many for Christ. New ministries took shape and a larger gathering space was required. We moved our Sunday services a bit more north to Clairemont High School in late 2019. This move north felt Spirit-led and significant for our community. Little did we know drastic changes not only for Commonwealth but for the entire world were about to hit.
The Middle
March 2020 was a monumental moment in history, and like everyone else, Commonwealth was impacted greatly by the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. When the pandemic hit Commonwealth was a young church plant and like many church plants, we did not have our own facility to meet in. The Covid closures caused our gatherings to be paused for a significant amount of time only allowing for an online expression of our services. While our young church community was remarkable in its flexibility and resilience in gathering in homes to watch online services and to connect over zoom, losing the larger gathering also meant a loss of momentum for Commonwealth.
This season also brought with it new challenges on a more personal level. Right in the midst of this time when gatherings were restricted, Nick received a surprising cancer diagnosis. Alongside the personal battle for health that Nick would be facing, this diagnosis also brought new limitations for him and for the family regarding participation in group gatherings. It felt as though much of Commonwealth’s forward progress came to a halt. We engaged with this season as a time to heal and a time to walk with those who were still with us through the tough pandemic season.
Early 2022 brought with it news of clear scans, and no signs of remaining cancer for Nick. It also brought with it a greater openness in our region for larger group gatherings. As we started to regather as a church community it became apparent that we needed some significant shifts to reengage our mission and reposition our efforts toward North County San Diego.
After a significant season of prayer and seeking wise counsel, we decided that it would be best for the future of Commonwealth to take a short pause and allow for a process of discernment. We called our church to take 4 intentional weeks to pray and process whether the Lord was calling them to help replant Commonwealth in this next season. With so much change for Commonwealth both in external circumstances and in our shift toward North County, we knew that there were some who had been journeying with us who might need the freedom to explore whether or not being part of the team that replants Commonwealth would be the best fit for them moving forward. We understood that the cost of this break would be saying goodbye to some good people and would put us in a place where we are dependent on God for financial support. However as we counted the cost, we had a sense that God was leading us this way and we knew it was worth the risk for the future of the Commonwealth.
