This is the core program of the Diocese. In the Diocese of Ilagan, the BEC concept was introduced through the Christian Community Building Program in 1975 as soon as Bishop Miguel G. Prugganan became the Local Ordinary. Together with a team composed of Fr. Ingeno Rapadas, Fr. Jesus Visaya and Sr. Bernadette Paat, SFIC, each parish was given a seminar on Christian Community Building. The thrust of this seminar was to generate awareness on a pastoral approach that is geared more on lay participation than hierarchical structure of the church; on the community than privatized religion; on personhood than the primary concern on the soul; on relatedness than on the emphasis on the individual.

In 1978, a full-blown BCC-CO Program was launched by the Social Action Center. This was implemented in four (4) barangays in Delfin Albano, four (4) barangays in Benito Soliven and four (4) barangays in San Mariano. These were practically the same barangays where the Community Based Health Program was being implemented. This program was spread to three (3) barangays in Ilagan in 1979. From 1980-1983, the program was at the forefront of the Hacienda San Antonio – Sta. Isabel case, in 1984-1986, many parishes began to pick up the program using various pastoral programs as entry points with each one claiming to be the correct approach. Attempts to have a common understanding of the BEC in the diocese through consultations proved futile as each one goes his/her own way giving claims to any pastoral activity as related to BEC.

With PCP II and especially with the First Diocesan Pastoral Assembly, BEC became the focus of all activities in the Diocese The years 1996 and 1997 saw the priests and some lay leaders undergo series of BEC seminars. As an immediate preparation for full-scale BEC, the Bishop decreed that all priests go through a program of immersion in the Prelature of Infanta.