Two years ago, the First Apostolic Church (FAC) Radford faced an unexpected yet exciting challenge: welcoming a growing number of Latino families into the church. How could they create belonging for people who do not speak English?
We spoke with Pastor Joey Hall and Wesley Combs, IT Director at FAC Radford, to learn how they overcame this challenge and built an inclusive multilingual ministry.
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Going from English-only to multilingual
Alvaro Tzunux, a bilingual minister at the church, shared his vision for reaching the Latino community in Radford. One day, his family met four Spanish-speaking men at a local restaurant, who he recognized as fellow Apostolic Christians. He invited them to church and they joined him at a men’s fellowship breakfast, expressing their desire to make FAC Radford their home church. This chance encounter inspired Pastor Hall to embrace the mission of making their church a home for everyone:
“From that moment on, we knew we had to do something to be able to adapt to that language or adapt to that culture and break somewhat that language barrier that was there between us and them.”
Their first step was to introduce a bilingual worship service.
The challenge of church translation
Initially, the bilingual service was conducted with Pastor Hall delivering his sermon in English, followed by Brother Tzunux translating into Spanish, sentence by sentence.
Naturally, there were challenges.
First, people were having difficulties trying to understand both languages. Second, services were running over time. Third, not all parts of the service were being translated.
About FAC Radford
FAC Radford is located in Radford, Virginia, a small city with a population of 16,070 people (source: US Census 2020). The church’s mission is to “reach our city, families, and community with the gospel of Jesus Christ and also to provide a place of healing and restoration to individuals or families who may feel rejected, alone, broken, abused or hurt.”
Starting its gatherings in a local bakery, the community grew, leading the church to relocate multiple times to accommodate a growing congregation. Today, the church has its own building equipped with a large sanctuary, prayer rooms, nursery rooms, and multiple classrooms.
FAC Radford offers various ministries where its community can gather for prayer and fellowship. These ministries include J Crew (children’s ministry), Hyphen (youth ministry), Men + Ladies Ministry, Prayer, and Bible studies.
A Sunday service at FAC Radford.
About FAC Radford
FAC Radford is located in Radford, Virginia, a small city with a population of 16,070 people (source: US Census 2020). The church’s mission is to “reach our city, families, and community with the gospel of Jesus Christ and also to provide a place of healing and restoration to individuals or families who may feel rejected, alone, broken, abused or hurt.”
Starting its gatherings in a local bakery, the community grew, leading the church to relocate multiple times to accommodate a growing congregation. Today, the church has its own building equipped with a large sanctuary, prayer rooms, nursery rooms, and multiple classrooms.
FAC Radford offers various ministries where its community can gather for prayer and fellowship. These ministries include J Crew (children’s ministry), Hyphen (youth ministry), Men + Ladies Ministry, Prayer, and Bible studies.
A Sunday service at FAC Radford.
The challenge of church translation
Initially, the bilingual service was conducted with Pastor Hall delivering his sermon in English, followed by Brother Tzunux translating into Spanish, sentence by sentence.
Naturally, there were challenges.
First, people were having difficulties trying to understand both languages. Second, services were running over time. Third, not all parts of the service were being translated.
As these limitations became evident, Combs started wondering what alternative solutions were available:
As these limitations became evident, Combs started wondering what alternative solutions were available:
“I can remember sitting in the pew thinking:
‘How in the world can I use a translation app on my phone to order a coffee in a foreign country, but here we’re trying to reach a community of people with the gospel and we can’t really do that–there’s no technological answer for that?’
And so it kind of lit a fire in me. To be honest, I got very, very excited about it [and] started really diving in head over heels trying to figure out what options were out there.”
His search for translation technologies led him to spf.io.
How spf.io simplified sermon translation
Spf.io is an all-in-one AI translation and accessibility platform. Using its versatile tools, Combs experimented with different ways to deliver live captions and translations during worship services. He wanted to find the way that Spanish-speaking members preferred.
Through trial and error, he found that the projector view worked best. A translation of the pastor’s speech would be displayed on a central screen. Meanwhile, Bible verses in English and Spanish would be shown on the two screens to the left and right sides of the stage.
With this setup, Spanish-speaking members could see the pastor while reading the translation. They liked looking at him rather than looking down at their phones. People with hearing loss could still use their phones to read real-time captions.
Combs praised spf.io’s robust capabilities as an all-in-one platform:
“I like spf.io so much because it is an all-in-one solution. So if I wanted it on their personal devices, if I wanted text-to-speech, if I wanted it in projector view, I had all of those options.”
The church didn’t stop at translating English services to Spanish. They flipped the script and used spf.io to translate Spanish services to English, inviting English-speaking members to participate fully. Combs explained:
“We’ve had several Spanish-only services with English-speaking members coming as a show of support. But now instead of just clapping along without understanding, they’re fully part of the service. It’s just fantastic.”
Pastor Hall also decided to use spf.io to translate end-of-service announcements because he noticed many Latino members used to be confused: “We were doing these announcements letting them know what’s going on in the community, and they were looking at us cluelessly.” He is delighted that the entire service is now translated.
Beyond bridging the language gap, Pastor Hall saw spf.io as a tool to deepen cultural understanding:
“[Spf.io’s] a great tool for not just reaching beyond the boundaries of language and culture, but it’s a great tool to help us to understand the culture, thus being able to understand the people because this is all about people. What we’re doing is all about people and reaching them.”
Feeling seen, feeling heard, and feeling understood is the key to creating belonging.
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