Chelsea Pribyl (right) is Chief Operating Officer at FILO (First In, Last Out). Todd Elliott (left) is the organization's founder.
Three different paths, lots in common. Recently, CPM sat down with Kari Martinez, Carrie Pasfield, and Chelsea Pribyl to discuss how they got to where they are, what drives them, and what lessons others may take from their experience. While they were separate conversations, there was a recurring theme among them all: these women aren’t afraid of a challenge (quite the contrary), they’re self-aware, they’re focused, and they are pursuing what they’ve been called to do. To declare that they’re an inspiration to other women working in tech may be true, but it shouldn’t be limited to that. They should be an inspiration to anyone who’s sincere about wanting to do something meaningful.
Kari Martinez
Water of Life Community Church, Los Angeles, California
Kari Martinez has been working in church tech for three years. A quick glance at her resume reveals that this is a woman who makes the most of her time. Martinez, a guitarist and singer, was introduced to the professional audio world by her music teacher. She attended her teacher’s gigs, and one day was invited to tag along to a recording session. “She was out there singing, and I was with the engineer behind the glass,” she recalls. “I thought the technology was really interesting—how he was able to record everything, and then just mess around and tweak everything. He was in charge, almost. And he had that creative side, too.”
During college, Martinez began volunteering as an audio technician at Harvest Christian Fellowship in Riverside, California. After graduating, she accepted a part-time position at Water of Life Community Church in Fontana, California, where she moves between mixing monitors, front-of-house (FOH), and broadcast audio. Outside of Water of Life she works on other projects, and uses her free time to build her skills.
“I would say just get out there … If you are in-person and there’s an opportunity, go for it.” KARI MARTINEZ
In October 2019, Martinez launched TheKariMartinez.com, an online community for women. Around the same time—using the skills she developed while earning her Bachelor’s in Communication at Cal State LA—she conducted two global surveys of women working in AV technology, exploring such diverse topics as what positions they held, to whether or not they felt they had to act like “one of the boys” in order to fit in or get a job. Released over the first two quarters of 2020 under the titles “Girls/Women Lifestyle Survey,” and “Women & Girls in AV Study” (the latter conducted in conjunction with Women in AV-WAVE) Martinez admits that this project was born out of curiosity: were there women out there like her? What she didn’t predict was how large a response she would receive, leading to press, interviews, and an exploding social media following.
Encouraged by Van Metschke, a church relations/client solutions representative at Vantage Pro, an AV design and integration firm headquartered in Newport Beach, California, Martinez is currently developing a podcast focused on women working in church tech. “It’ll be a place to talk about all kinds of stuff—even if it’s not tech, we’ll talk about things that someone with a technical mind could discuss with another girl with a technical mind or background,” she explains. “Because work takes up a lot of your life—even though it may not be your life, it takes up a lot of it, and it influences you. So it’s just having that space [where women can share their experiences].”There’s a story Martinez tells about a Friday evening in June 2019 that not only illustrates her thirst for learning, but can serve to inspire others, as well. She’s driving home after running errands and the local radio station is advertising a concert taking place nearby. She arrives just before the end of the show. She approaches a couple of members of the sound crew and asks if she can help them tear down (she’s already wearing her work boots, after all). They inquire as to whether she knows how. She assures them she does, and minutes later she’s hauling speakers back to the truck. A couple of months later, one of the crew members contacts her with an offer for another gig. It was a gutsy move, and Martinez admits that she was a little nervous in making the approach. What is her advice to other women who also need to put themselves out there in order to build their careers? “I would say just get out there,” she says. “If you’re shy, find a way. Even write to somebody—if you don’t want to do it in-person, do it over the internet. If you are in-person and there’s an opportunity, go for it. That’s the only thing you can do. Despite what you’re feeling, just do it.”
Carrie Pasfield
Hope Community Church, Raleigh, North Carolina
Former IT manager, technical trainer, online and live video producer … and with a “Ducktorate” in management from Disney University, Carrie Pasfield landed in church production with solid technical and people skills. For almost five years, she’s fulfilled the role of Production Team Project Manager at Hope Community Church in Raleigh, North Carolina, a multi-site church. As her title suggests, Pasfield attends to many of the major (and minor) details that go into producing weekly services and special events, including overseeing Hope’s team of volunteers.
Pasfield’s work with volunteers is in part influenced by what she learned at Disney, and recently she’s begun sharing those lessons with other members of Hope’s team. Her goal: to strengthen the church’s volunteer pool and nurture a culture whereby volunteers can be more autonomous in their roles. To achieve this, she believes it’s important to create a strong connection with those who come to serve at the church.“The first thing that they teach you when you start with Disney is that you need to make eye contact and smile,” Pasfield says. “It makes sense from a customer service perspective, and it really makes sense in terms of a volunteer team working with tech as a ministry. We want the volunteers to know that we care about them as people. We want to make this a group that works together, for their benefit, for God’s glory, and for the sake of the church. If we are a cohesive team, pieces work together really well, and one of the easiest ways to do that is for people to know that you care about them as people—looking them in the eye and making that personal connection that helps them know that they’re seen as people, and that they’re valued.”
“We’ve had to switch gears countless times in the past 12 months, and you know what? We’ve made it work every time.” CARRIE PASFIELD
As Pasfield and her team have navigated through the many challenges of this past year, she notes that they have mastered the ability to remain flexible. The lessons they have learned—taking care to communicate well, to embrace having to turn on a dime (and fast), and to welcome change—have imparted wisdom that she believes will apply to the new normal. “I think we’re going to be super-amazed at how much we can accomplish in a short amount of time, and how we’ve learned to work together, because we have to,” she says. “We’ve had to switch gears countless times in the past 12 months, and you know what? We’ve made it work every time. It’s been a powerful reminder that it’s not about me. It’s not about the team. It’s not even about the church. It’s about God. And He’s the King of the plot twist. We’re lucky enough to be along for the ride.”
Chelsea Pribyl
FILO (first in, last out), filo.org
Like most teenagers, Chelsea Pribyl loved hanging out with her friends. When she discovered they were volunteering in the AV ministry at Willow Creek Community Church’s campus in Wheaton, Illinois—and that she could volunteer too—she was all-in. The volunteer gig eventually turned into a part-time job. When she graduated from high school, the church offered her a full-time position as technical director of its youth ministry in South Barrington, its largest campus at the time.
It was a tall order, one that inspires the question: what qualities did she possess that gained the church leadership’s confidence to that degree? “The first two words that popped into my head are ‘responsibility’ and ‘character,’ and honestly those are two things that I look for in people that I want to join forces with,” Pribyl says. “I think churches look a whole lot at the character of who you are. What does your relationship with Christ look like? What do your boundaries look like? How do you talk to other people? How do you engage with the people that you lead? Character, I think means a lot. And responsibility. I have a high sense of ownership of whatever project you’re gifting me the responsibility for. And I think I was able to show that, even as a high schooler. I wasn’t perfect and had a whole heck of a lot of trouble in high school, too, but when it came to my job and when it came to serving at church, I felt a high stakes responsibility for it. And I think that came through in my actions.”
“Your relationship with Christ and who you are as a person matters first, and secondly, you’re a church tech artist.” CHELSEA PRIBYL
Pribyl spent just shy of 10 years at Willow Creek. In 2017, Todd Elliott, founder of FILO (First In, Last Out), enlisted her as chief operating officer for the organization, which serves as a resource for church tech artists. FILO began by hosting an annual conference for church techs, and has now expanded into providing coaching and staffing services, while also publishing a blog and producing a podcast. (Elliott also published his book, “I Love Jesus But I Hate Christmas: Tackling the Challenges of Being a Church Technical Artist,” several years after founding FILO.) Due to the pandemic, last year’s FILO conference was virtual; as of press time the FILO team was gearing up for an in-person/virtual hybrid event streamed live from Willow Creek.
Pribyl’s early experiences at Willow Creek taught her the importance of building and nurturing a network of women working in her field. She says that this was crucial at that time, when, as an 18 year-old with big responsibilities, the perception, in some cases, was that she didn’t know what she was doing. “It was easy for that message to hit me at the core, but I know that that was not what God was telling me,” she says. “I think that no matter what career I’ve been in—but especially in church tech—having other females in my community, especially ones who have gone before me, it’s important for me to surround myself with them and to meet with them regularly and share what the struggles are, and have somebody walking it with me so that they can remind me of the truth: what God’s actually calling me to do.”
Pribyl urges other women in church tech to build their support networks, but she suggests that first, they consider this advice that she once received: “Your relationship with Christ and who you are as a person matters first, and secondly, you’re a church tech artist,” she says. “Make sure that you’re in some sort of a spiritual community, and in a regular rhythm of worship and spiritual discipline so your relationship with Christ can grow as you’re growing as an employee, or as a volunteer, or servant at church. If that feels like it’s in order, secondarily [you can build] a community, seeking out leaders, mentors. Doing something to connect with somebody that does something like you do, it gives hope. It gives courage. And it gives fresh creativity and ideation when you can bounce things off of someone else. If somebody is willing to join you in conversation and community, I think it could go a long way.”
Carolyn Heinze is a freelance writer/editor and a regular contributor to Church Production Magazine. ■
