Christ Community Church Case Study

How can a church include members who speak other languages or are hard of hearing?

Reaching a growing, diverse congregation means going beyond a single interpreted service. Christ Community Church, a multisite congregation in the western suburbs of Chicago, had grown to more than 5,000 weekend attendees across five campuses since its founding in 1984, with a sixth campus on the way. As it grew, so did its diversity: a rising number of residents in the surrounding communities of St. Charles and South Elgin, Aurora, DeKalb, Streamwood, and Huntley speak a language other than English at home, and within the church the most common languages beyond English include Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, and Czech.

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:

• User-friendly,
• Require little technical support,
• Be budget-friendly for a nonprofit
• Meet the diverse needs of their entire congregation

How can a church offer sermons in dozens of languages?

With Wordly, congregants choose from dozens of languages in real time and hear the sermon in their preferred language, whether Spanish, Portuguese, French, Russian, Czech, Slovak, or many others. 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, and Wordly checked every box. Unlike traditional systems that limit language options or require advance planning, it keeps the church always ready to offer weekend worship 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.

Can live translation help a church grow and engage more people?

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.

Future: Expanding The Message with the 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.

About Christ Community Church

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.

About Wordly

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.

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