Meet Our Leaders
Matthew Battershell
Pastor / Teacher / Youtuber / Musician
The single greatest moment in human history was framed by a question: Pontius Pilate asked Christ, “What is truth?” (JOHN 18:38).
Absolute Truth stood before Pilate that day, yet he ordered Him away to die. Likewise, our society seemingly seeks a truth yet denies the only way, the only truth and the only life found in Jesus Christ. And this is my fiery purpose: to portray the truth of Christ in every medium possible. In the most raw, upfront and direct way possible.
The Truth of Christ challenges our comfort, ease and false security commanding us to infiltrate the evil of our day with blinding light! Let us take up our cross daily, deny ourselves and follow Him as we are led by the Holy Spirit!
2 THESSALONIANS 1:6-9 gives us great hope of Christ's justice to make all things right: “it is a righteous thing with God to repay with tribulation those who trouble you, 7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power, 10 when He comes, in that Day, to be glorified in His saints and to be admired among all those who believe, because our testimony among you was believed.”
Rudy and Valdie Oberhauser
Elder / Worship Director
We share Matthew's passion for truth because we have come out of a Pentecostal cult where we experienced the detrimental effects of false teachings and legalism.
Verses were taken out of context and twisted. We were exploited, controlled and manipulated. For example, we were taught one must be baptized and speak in other tongues in order to be saved.
If you were sick and went to a doctor, you had 'a lack of faith'. We were expected to pay a tithe and give large offerings. We were made to believe we could work our way into Heaven, which greatly increased our cult leaders monetary assets but put heavy burdens on the congregants.
This clouded our minds and resulted in us trusting our leaders more than the Bible. That is the great danger of false teaching: it leads to spiritual blindness.
It has been 20 years since God led Rudy and I out of the cult toward healing in Christ. Unfortunately, many others we knew were left shipwrecked in their faith.
At Living Stones Fellowship, we read verse by verse, encourage personal Bible study, and ask hard questions that most preachers try to avoid. Our priority is to "equip the Saints" (EPHESIANS 4:12) so others do not fall into false teaching like we had done.
Teach the Holy Scriptures
Verse-by-verse exegetical teaching is how to best learn, understand and grow in God's Eternal Word. Often during our midweek service, we have voted to study a specific book of the Bible. We took a total of two years in Revelation and have spend over a year in Job.
Our Sunday services have focused more on Biblical topics such as Salvation, Holiness, Repentance and more.
Of course, there's times when a service is dedicated to specific questions people have or culturally relevant topics. These wonderful times of discourse tend to be very exciting for all involved as we spur each other on in love and good deeds (Heb. 10:24).
Impact Culture
Jesus started His ministry by saying in LUKE 4:18, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
Living Stones Fellowship is committed to equipping the saints to go out and bring the gospel to their individual family, social network, job and neighbors. It is our conviction to live as Christ's light and salt (Matt. 5:13-16) in a world that is broken and in desperate need of the love and power of Jesus Christ shown in Scripture. It is the believer’s calling by God to preach to those who are caught up in sin so they can be free from a life of bondage in unrighteousness.
It is also the believer’s call by God to reach out with His healing power to bring comfort to all who are in need - to be channels of God’s reconciliation because man is by nature without a savior separated from God (2 Cor. 5:17-21).
Thus, we equip the believer to be an effective witness and minister of the Gospel through teaching, accountability and prayer during our services while also teaming up with local movements in our community for live worship, outreaches, food drives and more!
We welcome you as you join us in worshiping Christ and impacting our culture.
Our location
We meet in a private home located in Diamond Springs, California. For privacy reasons, our exact address is provided upon request.
