Your Church's Vocabulary, Enforced on Every Translation
Generic translation apps guess names. Sermon Translate remembers the terms you define and applies them consistently.
What you can store
Ministry names, elder and deacon names, doctrinal phrases, hymn titles, place names, and any term that should not be translated differently each week.
Why a church needs its own glossary
A general translator does not know that your pastor is called Pastor Kim and not Pastor Gold, that the Wednesday gathering is called Prayer Meeting, or that your members say Holy Communion rather than the Lord's Supper. Names of people, ministries, places and hymns come out differently every week unless the app is told how to write them. The church glossary tells it once, and every service after that uses the same wording.
How it works
Each glossary rule pairs a term in one language with the wording you want in another, for example Holy Communion and 聖餐禮. When the term is spoken, the translation uses your wording. Rules can be typed one at a time in Settings, pasted as a list, or imported from a Word, Excel, CSV or text file: every line that carries two terms, one in each language, becomes a rule, and the language of each side is read from its script.
- Names of pastors, elders, deacons and speakers
- Ministry names, service names and small group names
- Hymn and song titles your members recognise
- Doctrinal terms your tradition translates in a particular way
- Place names, church names and sister congregations
A good first glossary
Start with twenty entries: the names of everyone who speaks from the front, the names of your ministries, and the five church terms your members complain about most. Add a few each week when you notice a word coming out wrong. The glossary belongs to the account, so it works for every service and every language you read in.
Which plans include it
Custom vocabulary is part of the Standard plan ($34 a month for 30 hours) and everything above it. Bible book names are built in for many languages already, so the glossary is for the words that belong to your church.
Can I import our church terms from a spreadsheet?
Yes. Upload a Word, Excel, CSV or text file, or paste a list. Each line with a term in two languages becomes a glossary rule.
Does the glossary change the Bible verse text?
No. Verse popups show the published text of the Bible edition you choose. The glossary only guides how spoken words are translated.
How do churches translate sermons live with this app?
The speaker opens Sermon Translate on a phone, tablet or laptop, selects the spoken language and the translation language, and starts listening. Transcripts and translations appear on that device, and the whole room can read them as captions on a projector or livestream. No headsets, no interpreter booth, no extra hardware.
Which languages are supported?
Sermon Translate supports 123 languages. 61 of them can be spoken from the pulpit, including English, Traditional Chinese, Cantonese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Vietnamese and 53 more, and all 123 can be read as captions. Every listener can pick their own reading language. The full list is on the languages page.
How is this different from Google Translate or generic AI translation apps?
Google Translate is a powerful general-purpose translator. Sermon Translate is designed around the workflow of a Christian service: church vocabulary, hymn titles, proper names, Bible book names, and verse-reference popups that appear when the speaker clearly references a passage.
Do we need to install anything?
No. It runs in a modern browser on iPhone, Android and desktop. The speaker opens it on one device, and the congregation reads the captions on the projector or livestream. Anyone who wants captions on their own phone opens Sermon Translate there and signs in; each listener needs their own account or trial after the free period.
Can it replace a human interpreter?
Sermon Translate works as a sermon interpreter app for live services and handles common preaching vocabulary well. A church can use it as the main translation for weekly services, or alongside a human interpreter for rare languages or high-stakes events. It is a tool, not a person.