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"My role is to make sure the team has everything they need to suceed," says Keithan Carroll, Director of Production and Technology at Transformation Church in Tulsa, OK.
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Images courtesy of Transformation Church, Tulsa, OK.
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Images courtesy of Transformation Church, Tulsa, OK.
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Images courtesy of Transformation Church, Tulsa, OK.
For the Director of Production and Technology at Transformation Church in Tulsa, that quiet outcome represents weeks of preparation, clear communication, and a team equipped to execute without hesitation. When everything is aligned — people, systems, and expectations — the room can focus on worship rather than what’s happening behind the scenes.
“My role is to make sure the team has everything they need to succeed,” says Keithan Carroll, Director of Production and Technology at Transformation Church in Tulsa, OK.
At Transformation Church, that behind-the-scenes work supports an environment powered by arena-scale infrastructure: expansive LED surfaces, hundreds of lighting fixtures, a large-format PA, broadcast control, and a visual ecosystem driven by multiple media servers. Add a global online audience and digital displays throughout the facility, and the operational scope becomes clear. Carroll oversees all of it — and then some.
As Director of Production and Technology, he carries responsibility not only for audio, video, lighting, and broadcast, but also for IT, network infrastructure, cloud storage, security, and systems across the organization. It’s a role shaped by 27 years of experience spanning church ministry, touring, and corporate production.
But if you ask him what a great Sunday looks like, his answer remains disarmingly simple.
“The best Sunday for me is when I can walk in and nobody needs me.”
Keithan Carroll is Director of Production and Technology at Transformation Church in Tulsa, OK.
From Musician to Systems Leader
Carroll didn’t begin in technology. He began behind a drum kit. While serving at a church in Fayetteville, North Carolina, he said yes when a worship pastor asked if he could help in production. That willingness to serve behind the scenes changed the trajectory of his life.
From there, he pursued internships and mentors, joined the military to help fund college, and eventually worked with touring companies like Sound Image, supporting major A-list artists along the way. Touring taught him pace. Corporate production in Washington, D.C., taught him precision. Church ministry taught him shepherding. All three converge every Sunday in Tulsa.
A Church That Moves Fast
Transformation Church meets in a former arena seating roughly 3,700–4,000 people, with multiple levels supporting kids ministry, offices, youth gatherings, and operations. Guests entering the building encounter large-scale LED displays and immersive audio before ever reaching the auditorium.
Inside the worship space, the environment is intentionally high-production: expansive LED walls, layered lighting, broadcast capture, and live IMAG that must serve both in-person and online audiences. But scale is only part of the story.
“The culture here is fast-moving,” Carroll explains. “Vision matters — but execution matters too.”
At Transformation, ideas can pivot late in the week. Programming elements can evolve. Creative direction may shift based on pastoral leadership. That demands a team capable of both preparation and agility. Carroll calls it understanding the grace of pace. There are seasons of sprinting — and seasons of recalibration. Healthy leaders recognize both.
Production and IT Under One Roof
What makes Carroll’s role unusual is the dual oversight of Production and IT. While many churches separate those disciplines, at Transformation they operate in close coordination.
Carroll oversees:
- Global network infrastructure
- Wi-Fi and fiber upgrades
- High-bandwidth connectivity for creative environments
- Cloud and server storage
- Security protocols
- Website and help desk operations
Modern church production depends on strong systems architecture. Media servers, broadcast workflows, storage, and streaming all rely on network stability and throughput. Sunday excellence is now a systems conversation.
Elijah Carroll, Keithan's youngest son assisting his father on a Yamaha Rivage PM10 at a Transformation Church rehearsal.
Worship and Production: Managing the Tension
Ask any production leader about Sunday dynamics and one topic inevitably surfaces: tension between worship and tech. Carroll doesn’t avoid it.
“Yes, there’s tension,” he says. “But it’s relational tension.”
In his view, the solution isn’t more structure — it’s deeper relationship. Worship leaders and production directors must know one another beyond roles. Hard conversations become easier when relational equity exists.
Production needs tracks early. Lighting needs timecode. Audio needs preparation. Worship needs confidence that their environment will support them.
“One can’t function without the other,” Carroll says. “Unity is the goal.”
Volunteers as Multipliers
Despite the scale, Transformation Church relies heavily on volunteers — approximately 30 across camera, graphics, lighting support, and technical roles. But Carroll rejects the idea that volunteers should only push buttons.
Development is intentional. He believes in multiplication: Invest deeply in a core group of leaders, who then invest in smaller teams beneath them.
- Camera captains
- Steadicam mentors
- Technical leads
- Structured training pipelines
- Gradual onboarding before high-pressure environments
The result? Volunteers who grow beyond the building. Several camera operators trained internally have moved into touring roles with major worship artists. One former volunteer who learned media server operation now serves on staff.
For Carroll, that’s success.
“If we can send them out better than they came in, that’s a win.”
Volunteer development isn't about filling positions—it's about multiplying leaders.
Leading So Others Shine
In large-scale ministry environments, it’s easy for production leaders to become bottlenecks. Carroll works intentionally against that instinct by building strong directors beneath him and empowering team leads to own their lanes. If everything depends on one person, the system becomes fragile.
Volunteer development isn’t about filling positions — it’s about multiplying leaders. That approach also protects culture. Fast-moving churches can burn people out if pace isn’t managed wisely.
Carroll emphasizes honest conversations about expectations, capacity, and seasons.
“We move with urgency,” he says. “But we care deeply about people.”
Small gestures reinforce value beyond performance:
- Handwritten notes
- Birthday recognition
- Ongoing check-ins
- Clear communication of expectations
- Celebration of wins
Making Sunday happen at this level isn't about spectacle. It's about stewardship.
Images courtesy of Transformation Church, Tulsa, OK.
What Sunday Really Requires
There is no “normal week” at Transformation Church. There is preparation. There is process. But there is also flexibility.
Sunday success requires:
- Clear vision from senior leadership
- Executable creative planning
- Technical preparation across departments
- Relational alignment between worship and production
- Volunteer training pipelines
- Strong infrastructure
- And perhaps most critically, humility.
Carroll frequently returns to a principle learned early: hire people who complement your strengths, empower them to excel, and let them be recognized.
“The best thing you can do as a leader,” he says, “is have your team be seen.”
Beyond the Production Value
Transformation Church is known for dynamic communication, immersive worship environments, and content that reaches audiences far beyond Tulsa. But Carroll is careful to redirect attention.
“At the end of the day, we care about the Gospel.”
The LED walls, lighting systems, and broadcast workflows are tools. The mission remains unchanged: represent God to the lost and found for transformation in Christ.
Making Sunday happen at this level isn’t about spectacle. It’s about stewardship.
And for Keithan Carroll, stewardship means building systems, developing people, and leading in such a way that when Sunday arrives, the room runs smoothly — and he can stand quietly in the back, grateful no one needed to ask him a single question.
