I came across a few videos on TikTok of former Rise Church members/former staff speaking out about misconduct and abuse at Rise Church. Rise Church is a non-denominational church in Abilene, Texas: Facebook. Rise Church was founded by senior pastor Rey Sandoval in December 2016 according to his LinkedIn. He has a large online presence: Facebook, YouTube, Instagram. He sells merch on his website. Rise Church is also on TikTok.
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In April 2023, a news story covered allegations of abusive conditions at Rise Church men’s home.
Eddie Pugh graduated from the Rise Discipleship Home in 2020 and he is also a former employee who served as an operations director. While staying at the home he says he and other residents received discipline for disobeying their leaders.
“Losing a receipt, exposing your leader,” Pugh said. `That’s something they engraved in our minds. Never expose your leader. And if your pastor tells you to go over there and fall on that fence post, go fall on that fence post.”
Eddie Pugh, mentioned in the news story above, has been speaking out on Facebook since January 2023 about Pastor Rey Sandoval and Rise Church. Recently he and others have taken to speaking out on TikTok as well. He is sharing recorded conversations with former members alleging abusive conditions at the church and men’s and women’s homes. What I am hearing, in my opinion, sounds like a cult, a dangerous cult.
In November 2021, Matthew Charles Fouse, 42, of Lubbock, died from multiple stab wounds at Rise Discipleship Home, a drug and addiction recovery center run by Rise Church.
Former Rise Church assistant pastor Todd Meek is also speaking out about allegations of wrongdoing by pastor Rey Sandoval at Rise Church. Todd and his wife Shanae were let go from their church staff positions by pastor Rey on January 3, 2023.
Eddie Pugh also posted a recorded phone call with Rey Sandoval confronting him about alleged sexual misconduct with other women on church staff trips. On the call, Rey doesn’t deny these allegations and suggests that church elders will set up a “plan of restoration” for him. This phone call took place in January 2023. There are also posts on Facebook and TikTok alleging financial misconduct at Rise Church. There are also allegations of mistreatment at the Rise Women’s home.
It sure sounds like Rise Church and its discipleship homes have serious issues, making it an unsafe place that should be shut down. There are serious allegations about Rey Sandoval’s behavior that should not be overlooked. There are growing demands that he step down.
I have been told that reports have been made to the Abilene Police Department, but those reports have gone nowhere it seems, much to the concern and extreme frustration of those reporting. There are also allegations of child sexual abuse.
If anyone has further information to share, you can contact me by email: watchkeepamy@gmail.com.
For reports of child abuse, sexual abuse I recommend utilizing NCMEC cyber tip line. You can call or submit an online report.
I reached out to former Rise men’s discipleship home operations director and former Rise church member Eddie Pugh and he sent me the following statement:
Rey is very narcissistic and doesn’t care about anyone but his own personal agenda which is making more money for his extravert lifestyle. His Rise Discipleship Home’s are nothing more than modern day slavery. The homes are very unsafe and people have died due to Rey’s standards. My goal is to bring more awareness so that no more people have to die like Matthew Fouse, who was stabbed in the neck and murdered by a mentally unstable man who was allowed in the Rise Discipleship Men’s Home. They make these men and women come off of all psych medication prior to coming into the homes. If they show up with their medication they just confiscate it from them. They have no medical personnel qualified to treat these people properly. Unfortunately, this only the tip of the iceberg.
