Is Sanctavo more than a church translation tool?
Live translation is the first step, and the reason most churches call. It is also the point at which most tools stop. Sanctavo keeps going: the same hour of speech becomes the transcript, the full message, the church's memory, a week of content, and a list of the people who chose to be known — for years, not Sundays.
When a translation-only tool is enough
Be honest about this first. A church with one other language in the room, a reliable interpreter who is there every week, and no wish to publish anything afterwards does not need more than a voice on a phone, and several good products offer exactly that. If the sermon is not recorded, nobody transcribes it, and the newsletter is written from memory by someone who enjoys it, a translation tool that stops when the service ends is the right size.
The case for more begins the moment somebody asks for the recording, the week the volunteer who wrote the summary is away, or the Sunday a visitor leaves without anyone knowing they came.
One Sunday, nine things a church keeps
Everything below comes out of the same hour of audio, in order, each thing made from the one before it. That is the point: the transcript is not a second product bolted on to the translation; it is the translation, written down.
1. The live service
The congregation scans a code, chooses a language, and listens on their own phone. No app, no account. Comments and prayer requests can come back the same way.
2. The translation
A natural translated voice, in the preacher's own voice, with captions alongside for those who read, right-to-left scripts included. Every language the church switches on runs at once.
3. The transcript
Within the hour: the sermon written down, repeats and slips removed, in the language preached and in every language translated. Source audio and translated voice are kept per language.
4. The full message
Not a summary. The sermon itself, under the preacher's own outline, written once and translated section by section, for the person who could not be there.
5. Church Memory
Names, places, ministries and the phrases a church repeats, noticed service by service, approved by the church's team, carried into every translation and every draft after. Week ten sounds more like the church than week one.
6. Content
Seven pieces from every service: transcript, summary, the full message, a small-group guide, a blog article, an email newsletter, a social caption. Each written for its reader, in each language, as a draft the church reviews. A series can become a study guide or a book.
7. Engagement
How many listened, in which languages, how long, what was read afterwards. Counted anonymously; nobody signs in to listen.
8. Follow-up
A visitor who chose to be known — first time here, a prayer request, a way to be reached, in their own language — is in one list on Monday, with a status and a note, and is called rather than forgotten.
9. The long-term relationship
Every service adds to the same archive, the same memory and the same list of people. A sermon from last spring can be asked a question, in any language, for as long as the church chooses to keep it, and it answers from what was actually said. That is what a church keeps when the translation is over.
What holds it together
- One price. Every step is included in every plan; the only thing metered is hours of live language. Listeners, questions, glossary terms and everything the congregation reads afterwards are never counted.
- One rule about people. Engagement numbers are anonymous and stay separate from pastoral care; a listener becomes known only by choosing to.
- One review step. Everything written is a draft until a person at the church says otherwise. Because the system uses AI, errors remain possible, and the review is where they are caught.
- One place for the data. Recordings, transcripts and drafts are stored in Frankfurt, every processor is named in a public register, source audio is off unless the church turns it on, and a service with everything made from it can be erased in one action.
How to find out for your church
Not from this page. Book the free demo: one of your real services, in your languages, with us listening. By Monday you will have the transcript, the full message, the drafts and the list from that one hour, and you will know whether the line above is worth walking.
If all your church needs is the first step, we will say so. A translation tool that stops when the service ends is the right answer for some churches, and an hour on your own service is the cheapest way to find out which you are.