Church Glossary for Accurate Translation: Fix Names, Titles and Terms Before Sunday
· By the Sermon Translate team
A church glossary is a list of the names and terms your church uses, each with the wording you want in every language, so a translation tool uses them the same way every week. In Sermon Translate you add elder and ministry names, places, hymn titles and doctrinal terms in Settings before the service, and the app applies them to every translation. It fixes names and terms, but it does not fix poor audio, so use it together with a clean microphone feed.
What is a church glossary and why does translation need one?
A general translation tool has never heard of your church. It does not know that your associate pastor's name is a name and not an ordinary word, that your youth ministry has an official title, or that your congregation always says one particular phrase for a doctrinal idea. So it guesses, and it may guess differently each week.
A church glossary removes the guessing. You write down the term once, with the exact wording you want in each language, and the app uses that wording every time the term comes up. Members stop seeing the same elder's name spelled three ways in one sermon, and your ministry name stops turning into a literal translation.
This matters most for the people who depend on the captions. A visitor reading in a second language cannot tell that a strange word is a mistake. They simply lose the thread.
What should you put in a church glossary?
Start with anything that is a proper name or a fixed phrase in your church. These are the items an automatic translation is most likely to get wrong and most likely to repeat wrongly.
| Kind of entry | What to add | Why it helps |
|---|---|---|
| People | Names of the preacher, elders, deacons, ministry leaders and regular guest speakers | Names are not ordinary words, so a tool may translate or respell them |
| Titles | How your church writes titles such as pastor, elder, deacon and evangelist, in each language | Titles are placed and worded differently from language to language |
| Ministries and groups | The official names of your youth, children, worship and small group ministries | A literal translation can change the name members know |
| Places | Your church building, campuses, rooms and nearby locations people mention | Place names are easy to mishear |
| Hymn and song titles | Titles of the hymns and songs you sing or quote | A title is a fixed name, not a sentence to translate |
| Doctrinal terms | Phrases your congregation always says the same way | Keeps teaching language steady from week to week |
You do not need hundreds of entries on day one. Twenty well chosen names and terms cover most of what comes up in a normal Sunday.
How do you set up a glossary before Sunday?
The glossary lives in Settings, and it is worth ten minutes in the week before a service. The step by step guide to translating a sermon live covers the whole setup, and the glossary is step four of it.
- List the names and terms from last Sunday's bulletin, the sermon series title and the announcements.
- Open the church glossary in Settings and add each name or term.
- For each entry, write the wording you require in each language your readers use.
- Add this week's speakers and any guest names as soon as you know them.
- Say a few test sentences into the microphone before people arrive and check that the names come out the way you set them.
- After the service, add any word that came out wrong, so next week is better.
Why does the glossary store wording per language?
One name or term can need a different required form in each reading language. A Korean term might need one fixed Chinese form and a different fixed Spanish or Vietnamese form. Because entries are stored per language, each reader sees the form that fits their own language.
Titles are a good example. For English to Chinese, "Pastor Wu" becomes 吳傳道, with the title after the surname as Chinese readers expect. The glossary is where you set the forms your own congregation uses, rather than leaving that choice to the tool.
What is already built in, and what is the glossary for?
Sermon Translate has church vocabulary built in for some languages, separate from your own glossary. The built-in part covers Bible book names and, in the best supported languages, doctrinal terms and church titles. Your glossary then adds what is specific to your church: your people, your ministries and your places.
| Level | Languages | What it covers |
|---|---|---|
| Full built-in church vocabulary | 7 languages: English, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Vietnamese and Farsi / Persian | Bible book names plus doctrinal terms and church titles |
| Bible book names | 31 languages in all, including those 7 and others such as Arabic, French, German, Japanese and Russian | The 66 Bible book names taken from a published Bible in that language |
| General translation | Every other language | General translation with the church context prompt and no built-in glossary |
If your readers use a language in the last row, test your glossary entries during your free hour first. See the languages page for the full list of 123 languages.
What can a church glossary not fix?
A glossary controls how a known name or term is written. It cannot make the app hear a mumbled word, and it cannot recover a sentence that was lost to noise.
- Poor audio. A direct feed from the sound desk or a microphone close to the preacher beats a phone on a pew.
- Sung lyrics, which are harder to recognize than speech, so expect fewer captions during songs.
- Names you never added. A guest speaker's name only comes out right if it is in the glossary.
- Offline use. Sermon Translate needs an internet connection.
Which plans include the church glossary?
Custom vocabulary is listed on the Standard plan, and the All Languages plan includes everything in Standard. The Basic plan feature list does not include it. Every account without a paid plan gets 1 free hour of live translation each calendar month, which is enough to test a set of names on a real service.
| Plan | Price | Hours a month | Custom vocabulary |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | 1 hour | Not listed |
| Basic | $19.99 a month or $219.89 a year | 12 | Not listed |
| Standard | $34 a month or $374 a year | 30 | Included |
| All Languages | $59 a month or $649 a year | 60 | Included (everything in Standard) |
Remember that every extra reading language uses more of your hours. Full details are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a church glossary in a translation app?
It is a list of your church's own names and terms, such as elders, ministries, places, hymn titles and doctrinal phrases, with the wording you require in each language. The app applies it to every translation so the same term comes out the same way each week.
How many entries should I start with?
A few dozen at most. Begin with the names of your preacher, elders, ministries and your church building, then add guest speakers and new terms each week.
Does the glossary work in every language?
Full built-in church vocabulary exists for 7 languages, and Bible book names for 31. Other languages get general translation with the church context prompt, so test your entries in the free hour before relying on them.
Which plan do I need for custom vocabulary?
Custom vocabulary is part of the Standard plan at $34 a month, and the All Languages plan at $59 a month includes everything in Standard. The free plan gives 1 hour a month to test.
Will a glossary fix mistakes caused by bad audio?
No. A glossary fixes how known names and terms are written. Clean audio, one speaker at a time and clearly spoken Bible references still make the biggest difference.
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