Blindsided: Douglas Stauffer’s Motives Revealed

Douglas Stauffer’s actions beg the question, “Why did it not matter that Matt was able to present Stauffer with documented proof from the Zambian embassy website?” And why was it insignificant that our family was set to land near the country’s capital on election day, a time that would likely be a major climax during the ongoing political unrest? I believe our troubles were merely another opportunity for Stauffer’s own pomp and circumstance, beginning with Stauffer’s disagreement about Matt using his internship as his survey trip, and then continuing into what I believe was Stauffer’s utmost desire for acknowledge and power.

Internship Disillusionment

During the Tuesday night meeting of the King James Conference in 2018, the one dealing with my Facebook post in reaction to Stauffer’s carnal message, Matt and I finally had the opportunity to question Stauffer about his deceitfulness during the current meeting with Pastor Andrew Ray. As it turns out, Douglas Stauffer, a retired CPA and a man with two supposed PhD’s, disagreed with Matt accomplishing his internship for his degree while going on a strongly desired, and almost essential, survey trip, rather than making two separate trips. Not only had Matt been eagerly looking forward to using his internship as his survey trip since he was a freshman in college, and had even started the process as a New Testament Church Pioneer in 2001, but by 2016, he was married with two children, working full-time, needed to request the time off from work, and had a two-week minimum requirement from the college for the internship. We finally understood why Stauffer had always encouraged Matt to first go to a country or people group that was closer and more financially feasible to visit for his internship before taking his survey trip to the country God had laid on Matt’s hearts for years.

We accepted Stauffer’s strong disagreement with our family’s future ministerial plans, but we also recognized that he overstepped the bounds of individual soul liberty by purposefully attempting to prevent a trip that had nothing to do with him. More importantly, however, Stauffer overstepped at a time when my family’s life was potentially in danger, and we believe it all had to do with Stauffer’s pride.

All for Another Win

In June of 2016, just before the meeting with Pastor Andrew Ray, Stauffer participated in “The Great Rapture Debate” in Colorado as part of his evangelistic work, but upon returning to Antioch Baptist Church, Stauffer carried himself as a man overly proud of his accomplishments, believing himself to have succeeded against a pastor in proving a pre-tribulation rapture. I believe Stauffer took the opportunity to make my family’s trial into a power-play to pamper his own pride. Maybe he truly cared about my family’s safety and about us seeking after God’s will, but why else would Stauffer be unwilling to admit the fallacies of presenting my husband as an incompetent, ignorant fool, even after Matt showed him proof of the contrary? We concluded that Stauffer’s actions were merely his attempts toward another victory on his personal scoreboard after “The Great Rapture Debate,” rather than to aide us on our journey.

Preparation or Power

Truly, Stauffer could argue that he was trying to prepare us for the missionary field considering that he did eventually confess that he evaluated a missionary’s potential success by how he handled discouragement, seemingly Stauffer’s discouragement specifically. Possibly, in whatever goodness Stauffer was capable of, his actions were meant as a test of endurance. Were this the case, however, I never realized painting a future missionary as reckless and irresponsible when their family’s life was at stake was the Biblical method of measuring one’s ability to successfully make it to and stay on the mission field! During the meeting of 2016, Stauffer had even gone so far as to suggest that if God truly wanted us to go on our survey trip in 2016, and that it was not simply Matt’s half-baked plan, God would work out the financial situation we had requested assistance with. Ironically, God provided through a lost man, and Stauffer essentially had to eat crow as he handed us a check from the church AFTER everything came together!

The Conclusion of the Matter

In reality, I believe Stauffer attempted to stand in the stead of God in our lives by questioning my husband using his mission’s degree internship as his survey trip and portraying the mission’s trip as a decision made outside of God’s will. I believe he presented our situation in whatever light he felt was necessary to be the most beneficial to Douglas Stauffer, as shown throughout the meeting and in the days to follow when Stauffer never admitted he was wrong and never apologized for his deceptiveness. Moving forward, we thanked the Lord for the safety in the multitude of counselors, which did NOT include Douglas Stauffer. We thanked the Lord for their encouragement and advice to change the dates/location for the trip, and we determined that our initial hesitations about Stauffer barely scraped the surface of the destruction he probably left behind. But, oh, how different things may have been had we heeded our hesitations in seeking Stauffer’s “wisdom” in the first place!

Thankfully, though, we never had another run-in with Stauffer until his messages in 2018 about the people who left, but by that point, we knew he was a Diotrephes and could not be trusted. Though we were still floored by his confidence to throw out darts behind the pulpit, what surprised us the most was when we heard Pastor Andrew Ray agree with his statements and say, “Amen!” Had Stauffer influenced him that much? Could it be he was just severely wounded and trying to heal? Instead of admitting the truth, we concluded that Stauffer had likely had some influence on Pastor Ray, but he and his family were just severely wounded and hurting. We knew our pastor’s heart! Unfortunately, we had NO idea what Pastor Ray was actually doing behind the scenes until some of it slowly came to light despite our desires to support and trust our pastor.

In this series I share my thoughts and opinions concerning these ministers and the events which led to my departure. Click here to continue reading: “Blindsided: TBD: Pastor Ray” or click on a title below. [Links will be added as new blogs are posted.]

Blindsided Series

Part One: Red Flags and Rose-Colored Glasses

• • Series Introduction
  • Hindsight is 20/20
  • First Warning Signs
  • Circumcising the Critics- Sermon #1
  • Circumcising the Critics- Sermon #2

Part Two: Calloused Carnality and Hidden Harassment
(Sunday, June 3, 2018- Tuesday, June 5, 2018)

• • Douglas Stauffer’s Carnal Message on Carnality- Sermon #3
  • Silent No Longer
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Voicemail to Matthew Olds
  • Personal Response to Douglas Stauffer’s Voicemail
  • Harassment from Douglas Stauffer Begins
  • Private Messages Between Matthew Olds and Pastor Andrew Ray
  • Afternoon Phone Calls with Pastor Andrew Ray and Douglas Stauffer
  • Continuation of Messages between Matthew Olds and Pastor Andrew Ray
  • Crystal Olds’ First Facebook Apology Post
  • Douglas Stauffer Twists Crystal Olds’ Public Apology
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Harassment Crosses Another Line
  • The Olds’ House Divided
  • Face-to-Face with Douglas Stauffer
  • Reduced to Being the Pastor’s Cheerleader

Part Three: Navigating the Masks of Deceit
(Wednesday, June 6, 2018- Sunday, June 17, 2018)

• • Douglas Stauffer’s Twitter Tells All (Part One)
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Twitter Tells All (Part Two)
  • Still Expected to Cheer from the Nursery
  • Our Own Pastor- Friend or Foe?
  • Our Pastor’s True Colors Begin to Show (Part One)
  • Our Pastor’s True Colors Begin to Show (Part Two)
  • One Finger Salute
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Public Apology
  • Straight from the Horse’s Mouth
  • The Illusion of Pastor Andrew Ray
  • Crystal Olds’ Email to Pastor Andrew Ray about Douglas Stauffer’s Harassment and Character
  • Pastor Andrew Ray’s Message on “Biblical Forgiveness”
  • Shredding the Evidence

Part Four: Discerning a Diotrephes: Douglas Stauffer

• • Douglas Stauffer- A Diotrophes at Heart
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Traveling Conceit
  • Douglas Stauffer- Pride He Can Count On
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Pharisaical Comparisons
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Perspective About His Pride
  • A Missionary’s Dream
  • Douglas Stauffer- Clouds Without Rain
  • Planning on a Prayer
  • Crossing I’s and Dotting T’s
  • Medical Mazes (Part One)
  • Medical Mazes (Part Two)
  • Sent to the Wolf, Unaware
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Deceitful Misleading
  • Douglas Stauffer Twists the Truth
  • Matthew Olds’ Email to Pastor Andrew Ray
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Motives Revealed

Part Five: When Closet Skeletons Speak

Part Seven: Rising Up from the Ashes

• • Out of the Fire… With Buckets of Water
  • Our Letter to the Witnesses
  • Finally Speaking Out
  • “What Really Happened (Part One)”
  • “What Really Happened (Part Two)”
  • Douglas Stauffer’s Private Message to Matthew Olds (December 2018)
  • Yet Another Private Message from Douglas Stauffer (December 2018)