SAN LUIS OBISPO (CA)
The Tribune [San Luis Obispo CA]
January 11, 2026
By The Tribune Editorial Board
After keeping a scandal secret for five years, Arise Vineyard Church in San Luis Obispo has lifted the veil in a very public way.
On the church’s website, you’ll see a prominent headline on the landing page: “FAQ Regarding Rick and Becky Olmstead.”
Click on that you’ll be led to a version of events that — albeit somewhat sanitized — acknowledges the church’s former pastor, Rick Olmstead, “exercised poor judgment when he took unsolicited photographs of young women while waiting in line outside a local store.”
Specifically, he used his phone to surreptitiously photograph young women’s backsides while he was waiting in line outside Trader Joe’s. (This was in 2020, when social distancing rules were enforced on account of the COVID pandemic.)
Olmsted was then seen following young women around inside the store and, according to some observers, he appeared to be possibly be intoxicated, according to an investigative report by Tribune reporter Chloe Shrager.
The incident was alarming enough to cause store employees to later notify police.
While Olmstead’s behavior was not considered illegal (it happened in a public place, where there is no “reasonable expectation of privacy”), it was deeply disturbing — even more so given that this was a man trusted to provide spiritual guidance.
Former lead Pastor Rick Olmstead resigned from his volunteer position at Arise Vineyard church during Christmas week 2025 due to resurfaced rumors of him nonconsensually and inappropriately photographing women’s backsides at the San Luis Obispo Trader Joe’s store in 2020.
Similar case occurred just months earlier
To add to the church’s embarrassment, its previous pastor, Thom O’Leary, resigned in 2020 after he admitted to inappropriately touching women and drinking excessively.
In the wake of that incident, the church “rebranded,” changing its name from Mountainbrook to Arise Vineyard.
Then, less than a year later after the reboot, Pastor Olmstead is reported for being sexually inappropriate?
It’s no surprise that church leaders were tempted to deal with the matter quietly — which is exactly what they did.
Church leaders must be held accountable
To put this in context, we should first acknowledge that sexual misconduct — much of it far, far worse than photographing and following young women — is all too common in churches and other religious organizations of myriad denominations.
Over the past 20 years, for example, the Catholic Church has spent more than $5 billion on sexual abuse cases, most of it going to settle lawsuits filed on behalf of victims, according to the National Catholic Reporter.
Beyond the money, it’s impossible to gauge the pain and suffering experienced by victims of abuse or the disillusionment of church members who lost faith in organizations that could allow this to continue.
While it’s true that churches are not directly responsible for the misconduct of employees, every religious organization should be held accountable for how it responds once it becomes aware of inappropriate behavior.
That leads us Arise Vineyard.
Once it was made aware of what happened at Trader Joe’s, the board decided to quietly handle the situation. It did not report the incident to its congregants or its parent organization, Vineyard USA, which includes 500 churches across the country. (Vineyard also has churches overseas.)
Olmstead was allowed to remain in his position, though he was required to undergo counseling and apologize to the store, and he was not allowed to be alone with young women or teens associated with the church.
But the scandal was never totally forgotten. Five years later, a former church member anonymously reported what happened by contacting Vineyard USA.
After that — and after receiving inquiries from The Tribune — the church announced that Olmstead had resigned and belatedly, the local church board admitted it mishandled the situation.
“While the response was deemed sufficient at the time by the Board, in hindsight, this lack of broader disclosure contributed to the current situation, and responsibility for that has been acknowledged,” it wrote on the FAQ page.
Of course the board should have reported the incident up the chain — as it did in the early case involving former Pastor O’Leary, when a private investigation was conducted and Vineyard USA was contacted.
Other sexual misconduct cases at Vineyard churches
This was not the first — or by any means the worst — sexual misconduct case Vineyard USA has confronted.
Two cases in particular stand out:
In Anaheim, a church formerly affiliated with Vineyard USA is being sued by a former member who alleges he was abused by a youth pastor over a period of years.
At Duluth Vineyard Church in Minnesota, a former youth pastor pleaded guilty in 2024 to sexually assaulted multiple girls and was sentenced to 13 years in prison. His parents, who were senior pastors at the church, were alleged to have covered up the abuse. The church now faces nine civil suits.
Vineyard USA issued several statements in response to the Duluth case. One included an apology “to those who may have experienced leadership misconduct.”
In the most recent statement, dated March 12, 2025, this sentence stands out.
“Expecting a local church to investigate its own leaders — without external support or oversight — was not the right approach.”
It was not.
It is a clear conflict of interest for a church to investigate its own leaders — not unlike asking a prosecuting attorney to put a family member on trial.
The report goes on to outline changes Vineyard USA has made in its handling of sexual misconduct cases, including:
- An “ordination framework” to establish expectations for Vineyard pastors.
- A reporting structure that goes beyond the local church to ensure “a fair and trauma-informed process.”
- Counseling and confidential care for victims.
- Improved training and oversight. “We are equipping leaders at every level to recognize and respond to issues of misconduct in ways that reflect both justice and grace.”
Now the question is, will every church follow the guidelines?
We’ve seen what happens when they fail to do so.
At Arise Vineyard, there was an outward perception that the report of misconduct was not taken seriously enough — and that the church cared more about saving face than doing what was best for the congregation.
As painful as it is for any organization — be it a church, a school, a government agency or a business — to deal with sexual misconduct, keeping it quiet in the hopes that it will all go away is never the answer.
Arise Vineyard Church acted correctly when it acknowledged what had occurred.
Too bad it took five years to do it.