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Wordly Case Study
Christ Community Church, based in Northern Illinois, is a dynamic multisite congregation serving the western suburbs of Chicago. Founded in 1984, the Church has grown to over 5,000 weekend attendees across five campuses, with plans underway to launch a sixth campus soon.
As the church has grown, so has the diversity of its congregation. A growing number of residents across the surrounding communities of its campuses - St. Charles/South Elgin, Aurora, DeKalb, Streamwood, and Huntley - speak a language other than English at home. Within the church itself, other than English, the top languages spoken include Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, and Czech.
This growing linguistic diversity presented an intriguing opportunity: How many more people in the local communities could be a part of the church if the obstacles of language or hearing ability were removed?
In the past, the church provided Spanish interpreters at select services. While helpful, that solution didn’t meet the needs of the broader multilingual community or individuals who are deaf or hard of hearing.
With a mission centered on belonging, growing, serving, and reaching, Christ Community recognized that inclusive communication was essential, not optional. Meeting this challenge became a top priority, leading the church to explore innovative solutions to ensure every voice could be heard and every person could engage fully in worship and community life.
In searching for a solution to its communication challenges, Christ Community Church had a few key objectives. The platform needed to be:
Christ Community Church needed a reliable, flexible solution that could provide real-time translation in multiple languages at once and include captions for the deaf and hard of hearing.
That’s when the team discovered Wordly.
Wordly checked every box. Unlike traditional systems that limit language options or require advance planning, Wordly allows congregants to choose from 60+ languages in real time. This means anyone can hear the sermon in their preferred language, whether it's Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Czech, Slovak, or many others. With Wordly, Christ Community is always ready to provide its weekend worship services to its communities in many languages.
Attendees simply scan a QR code or click a link to listen or read a text-like transcript in their native language on their own device. Simultaneously, live English captions make it easier for those who are hard of hearing to follow along. For some, especially those who are deaf, this has been a game-changer, making it possible to fully engage with a worship service for the first time.
Ease of use was also essential. The Wordly plug-and-play setup for church translation means a tech team isn’t needed to manage multiple systems or provide constant support. It freed up staff to focus on the ministry, not troubleshooting.
To ensure the platform met their standards, the church tested it with a focus group, which included a member who had worked as a United Nations translator to evaluate Wordly in a live service.
The first two months of using Wordly generated an overwhelmingly positive response. Christ Community Church now uses Wordly’s live translation across all five of its campuses, with approximately 900 people having accessed the platform. Attendees are engaging with its messages in 36 different languages across more than 10 weekly services. The church has also seen an increase in attendance. Most notably, this year’s Easter service had the highest attendance in the church’s 40-year history.
“That’s 900 times someone would have missed hearing the Good News of Jesus” said Executive Assistant to the Lead Pastor, Tracy Baer. “With Wordly, they’re not just attending, they’re truly participating and connecting with the message, making them feel like they’re truly part of our Christ Community Church community.”
By adopting Wordly, Christ Community Church moved from a one-language model to a truly inclusive approach. This removed language barriers and allowed every member to engage with scripture and apply Christ’s message to their lives in a meaningful way.
Beyond spiritual engagement, the church also experienced a practical transformation. What once required significant planning, volunteers, and interpretation logistics is now handled effortlessly through a single platform, enabling the church to reach more people in its communities. In doing so, Christ Community Church has not only made its worship services more accessible, but also redefined what it means to be connected as a church.
As the Church looks ahead to launching their sixth campus, Christ Community Church is excited to continue using Wordly to unify their increasingly diverse community under one message, one mission, and one truly welcoming experience.
Christ Community Church is a vibrant, multisite congregation based in the western suburbs of Chicago, with over 5,000 weekly attendees across five campuses—and a sixth on the way. Founded in 1984, the church is deeply committed to making passionate disciples who are belonging, growing, serving, and reaching. Christ Community Church serves a diverse and growing population, and is committed to creating welcoming spaces where those speaking many different languages can engage in worship and feel part of a healthy and growing church.
Wordly is the pioneer and leader in live interpretation, providing a high-quality, secure, easy-to-use, and affordable live AI translation and caption solution for communicating across multiple languages. Wordly translates dozens of languages in real time, making in-person and virtual meetings and events more inclusive, accessible, and engaging.
Its SaaS platform meets enterprise-grade security and privacy standards and eliminates the need for human interpreters or special equipment. Millions of users across thousands of organizations rely on Wordly to make their events and meetings accessible to everyone.
See it in action – book a personalized demo.
Christ Community Church uses Wordly to connect a diverse, multilingual congregation across five campuses. Learn how live AI translation and captions enabled 900+ attendees to access weekly worship services in over 36 languages, enhancing inclusion for non-English speakers and those who are deaf or hard of hearing.
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