The Sunday checklist for a translated service

A translated service fails in small ways: a cable nobody plugged in, a QR card left in the office, a volunteer who did not know they were the volunteer. None of it is technical. Here is the list we run through with a church before its first Sunday, in the order things actually go wrong.

Saturday: three things

1. The feed. One line from the sound desk into the laptop or phone that runs the service. Test it with the pulpit microphone, not with a laptop mic in a quiet room. If the desk has an aux out, use it; if not, a small USB interface does the job and stays in the drawer between Sundays.
2. The card. A printed QR code with three lines: scan, choose your language, bring earphones. Ten copies on the welcome desk, one on the screen at the start of the service. The link does not change from week to week, so the cards last.
3. The name. One person who owns the translation on the morning. Not the preacher, not the sound engineer, both of whom are busy. Someone who can open the session at 9:50 and answer "which language?" at 10:05.

Sunday, before the service

• Open the session fifteen minutes before the first word. Fifteen, not two: the first Sunday is when someone discovers their phone is on silent, or that the church Wi-Fi asks for a password nobody remembers.
• Say it from the front. "Today's sermon is translated into Farsi and English on your phone. Scan the code on the screen, choose your language, use earphones." Once, plainly, before the first song. A card alone reaches the people who read cards.
• Put the volunteer near the door for the first ten minutes. That is where the questions are.

During the service

Nothing. That is the point. The translation follows the speaker, under a second behind, in a natural voice that keeps the preacher's tone and rhythm. The volunteer sits down.

After the service

• Ask two listeners one question: "Could you follow?" Not "was it good" — people are polite. "Could you follow" gets a real answer.
• Close the session. An open session keeps listening to an empty room.
• Write down the one thing that went wrong. There is always one, and it is usually the cable.

What you do not need

A booth, headsets to collect, a technician, an app to install, a second Sunday to "test it properly". The first Sunday is the test, and it is a real service for the people who came for it.