Pastor Rick Olmstead resigns after past incident of taking unsolicited photos of young women at Trader Joe's resurfaces

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Wednesday, January 21, 2026

Rick Olmstead, senior pastor of Arise Vineyard Church in San Luis Obispo, California, has resigned following the resurfacing of allegations that he inappropriately photographed young women outside a local Trader Joe’s in 2020.

Responding to a report in The Tribune about Olmstead’s Dec. 20 resignation, Arise Vineyard Church, formerly known as Mountainbrook Church, confirmed the resignation on its website. They noted, however, that some of the allegations in the report were new to them.

Taylor Berns, a former Mountainbrook intern, told the publication that she was working at Trader Joe’s in San Luis Obispo on Oct. 9, 2020, when Olmstead was caught taking nonconsensual pictures of the backsides of college-aged women and following them around. She further noted that because she had experienced what she alleged as inappropriate behavior from the pastor once while she was at the church, she reported what happened at the store to the church’s board, but did not see a meaningful response.

Information cited by The Tribune, including a stern warning from the church’s board in 2020, confirmed the Trader Joe’s incident was dealt with internally. Olmstead was placed in a counseling plan, had to apologize to the store, and was barred from being “alone with teens or young women associated with the church.” It was further noted that the incident occurred while he also led two religious nonprofits focused on children and teens. He served as the global leader of the 4/14 Movement and president of Generation Now.

Arise Vineyard confirmed in their Q&A that Olmstead, 74, had “exercised poor judgement” at Trader Joe’s, but believed he had taken responsibility for his actions.

“Five years ago, Rick exercised poor judgment when he took unsolicited photographs of young women while waiting in line outside a local store. This was addressed at the time through confession, counseling, accountability, and a restoration process with the Board, that was completed by Rick,” the church said.

Berns told The Tribune that the Trader Joe's incident occurred shortly after the resignation of a previous pastor, Thom O’Leary, for inappropriate behavior toward women and excessive drinking. She believes the church board didn't ask for Olmstead's resignation at the time in order to save the church and avoid losing additional members. 

It was noted that the incident resurfaced after an anonymous report was made to Vineyard USA’s Guidepost Solutions hotline.

“Vineyard USA followed up with the current Arise Board and the board has been engaging with the situation since. Rick and Becky determined — together with the Board — that stepping back now was the wisest course of action for the wellbeing of the church and themselves,” the church said.

The resurfacing of the Trader Joe’s incident comes as Vineyard USA has grappled with a number of sexual abuse scandals and allegations of mishandling sexual abuse claims in recent years.

Both The Vineyard Church in Duluth, Minnesota, and Vineyard USA have been named in nine civil lawsuits alongside Jackson Gatlin, a former young adult and online community pastor at The Vineyard Church who accepted a plea deal in November 2024 for criminal sexual conduct with a child.

Arise Vineyard said in its statement that when the incident with Olmstead happened in 2020, they did not inform Vineyard USA, due to their “local autonomy” but they have since implemented better reporting systems.

“In 2020, our church operated with a high degree of local autonomy, which was standard for the organization at that time. While a report was considered, there were no established protocols or formal requirements for reporting internal personnel matters to national leadership. Given the decentralized nature of the network and the specific internal focus of the restoration process, the Board acted within its authority to resolve the matter locally,” the church said.

“Since then, both our local church and the national organization have evolved significantly, implementing much clearer reporting structures and standardized protocols that simply weren't in place five years ago,” they added.  “We see in retrospect that we could have better thought through the ramifications of not involving wider leadership earlier. We have since implemented much more robust reporting structures to ensure greater transparency.”