The Faces of the Digital Church: Meet Pastor Rey

MEET PASTOR REY —Break Forth Church— Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, Philippines

The COVID-19 pandemic has made its way through Pastor Reynaldo Paraguya’s entire family—including his wife, all four of his sons—as well as his church.

Break Forth Church in Cagayan de Oro City, Mindanao, Philippines, was established in 2016 as a pioneer work. Pastor Rey tells what happened when the country began shutting down.

“When the Philippine government declared a no-gathering policy because of COVID-19, I prayed to God about what to do.” He recalls how God answered his prayer.

“On March 14, in the evening, I heard a still, small voice in my heart instructing me to go livestream. So I started in a generic way using just a cell phone.” That was just the beginning of how this innovative pastor would manage to continue spreading the gospel.

“A few days later, I saw a post in Facebook by AP Media about how to go live using a switcher app. We just follow that setup. I communicated with Patrick Tan through the Manila office of AP Media. He gave us detailed instructions on how to set it up.”

The team at Break Forth Church began using the enhanced technology to livestream their Sunday worship services.

“Now we also livestream our midweek service and a one-hour devotional program weekdays from 7 to 8 every morning. We have also added two more programs for discipleship every Monday and Saturday at 5 p.m.”

Pastor Rey and his team say it so well in a recent Facebook post: “In this pandemic, THE CHURCH IS NEVER CLOSED!”