The Church Interpreting Podcast

Episode 41: Setting Interpreting on Good Ground

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:18:19 GMT

In this episode, Lauryn talks about how she keeps herself grounded while interpreting and Jonathan give the secret to great interpreting.

For more information on getting great church interpreting, buy Jonathan's new book: https://missionbooks.org/products/multilingual-church?_pos=1&_sid=96f301dde&_ss=r

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Episode 40: Lovely Words and AI Decisions

Fri, 27 Feb 2026 15:43:06 GMT

This month, Lauryn tells the story of the best compliment she ever received and Jonathan asks why churches choose to use AI interpreting.

For a full rundown of making better interpreting decisions, try Jonathan's book, Multilingual Church: https://missionbooks.org/products/multilingual-church

Find free resources for your church here: https://churchinterpreting.com/

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Episode 39: The Best Way to Work Together

Thu, 29 Jan 2026 09:29:50 GMT

This month, Lauryn talks about the power of interpreters and speakers praying together before they work together and Jonathan explains the real reasons why interpreting sometimes goes wrong.

As ever, if you would like free resources for your church, go to ChurchInterpreting.com.

For a one-stop guide to all things multilingual in church, check out Jonathan's book Multilingual Church: https://missionbooks.org/products/multilingual-church

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Episode 38: Doing it Right

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 12:36:20 GMT

This month, Jonathan and Lauryn discuss ways to make sure church interpreting works well for the people who use it. Want to find ways to deliver better interpreting without spending any more money? This is the episode for you.

Get more free resources from churchinterpreting.com

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Episode 37: Tales of the Unexpected

Fri, 31 Oct 2025 11:38:49 GMT

This month, Jonathan explains why sending sermon notes in advance is so important and Lauryn recounts the story of a conference where she had to manage the unexpected.

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Episode 36: Top Ten Tips for Interpreters and Speakers

Thu, 28 Aug 2025 15:52:04 GMT

This month, we have a short episode, in which Lauryn gives her top 5 tips for interpreters and Jonathan gives his top 5 tips for preachers.

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Episode 35: How to work with an Interpreter

Fri, 25 Jul 2025 15:03:39 GMT

In this episode, Lauryn and Jonathan give out their best tips for working effectively with interpreters in church.

If you or your church would like more free resources, check out

ChurchInterpreting.com

You can also buy Jonathan's book at:

https://missionbooks.org/products/multilingual-church

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Episode 34: Hope

Sat, 05 Jul 2025 13:29:49 GMT

In this episode, Lauryn and Jonathan talk about how church interpreting gives hope and how church interpreters can have hope themselves.

For more free resources, check out ChurchInterpreting.com.

To buy Jonathan's newest book, Multilingual Church, click here: https://missionbooks.org/products/multilingual-church

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Episode 33: The Art of Blanking

Thu, 29 May 2025 11:11:16 GMT

This month, Lauryn and Jonathan both answer that tricky question: what do interpreters do when they don't know a word?

For more free resources, check out ChurchInterpreting.com.

To buy Jonathan's newest book, Multilingual Church, click here: https://missionbooks.org/products/multilingual-church

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Episode 32: Ready for the Ordinary Extraordinary?

Tue, 29 Apr 2025 10:10:13 GMT

In the first episode of season 4, Lauryn talks about interpreting when you didn't expect to interpret and Jonathan chat about the importance of working at our best, even when we get used to interpreting a lot.

Looking for more help? You can buy Jonathan's book, Multilingual Church, right here: https://missionbooks.org/products/multilingual-church

You can also get free guides and advice from ChurchInterpreting.com

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Episode 31: Fighting Discouragement

Fri, 28 Mar 2025 12:33:23 GMT

This month, Lauryn and Jonathan talk about when to push through and when to take a break. Lauryn talks about doing things even when you don't feel like it and Jonathan answers the question "what do you do when you just aren't up to interpreting?"

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Episode 30: Preparation Special!

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 16:03:43 GMT

In this special episode, Jonathan and Lauryn take on the tricky subject of preparation. What should interpreters do with sermon notes? How should you get yourself ready to interpret in church? What should our expectations be of our own training?

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Episode 29: Is your church inviting?

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 16:30:50 GMT

In this short episode of The Church Interpreting Podcast, Jonathan gets to the core of what we mean when we ask how we can better integrate speakers of different languages into the church while Lauryn talks about the importance of intonation. Lauryn ends the show with a quick tip on interpreting prayer times.

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Episode 28: Curiosity, Welcome, and Helping EVERYONE Flourish

Thu, 19 Dec 2024 17:15:33 GMT

This month, Jonathan interviews Peter Bates, who has dedicated his life to helping people of all backgrounds find community and welcome. He talks about his career working in the care sector, training care staff to think differently about how to help people with long-term mental health issues. We then explored how this informed his survey of how churches in his city are using machine translation and why interpreting in church has to go beyond just making sure people understand.

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Episode 27: AI, Machine Interpreting and Church

Thu, 28 Nov 2024 11:59:07 GMT

This month, Lauryn and Jonathan interview Chris Lim, founder of spf.io, an all-in-one language platform for churches. We ask about their guidelines for using machine interpreting in church, what that might mean for the future of human interpreters, how human interpreters can benefit from spf.io and what it takes for churches to use languages well.

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Episode 26: Why do we interpret?

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 08:46:02 GMT

This month, Lauryn and Jonathan answer the really simple question: why do we interpret? On the way, we think through why church interpreting and any interpreting matters, how it is part of God's plan and why it is important to keep thinking through our reasons for doing what we do.

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Episode 25: Nurturing Interpreters, Nurturing Interpreting

Fri, 30 Aug 2024 11:05:14 GMT

In this month's episode, Lauryn explains how to identify and nurture possible interpreters and Jonathan gives us the truth about what to do if the interpreting in your church is boring.

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Episode 24: Preparation and Practice

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 12:45:08 GMT

This month, Lauryn walks through how to prepare to interpret in church while Jonathan explains how to practice between assignments.

For more information on multilingual church, go to ChurchInterpreting.com.

For interpreting and consulting, go to IntegrityLanguages.co.uk.

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Episode 23: Small church, lots of languages

Fri, 28 Jun 2024 21:27:32 GMT

In this episode, Lauryn and Jonathan tackle that tricky question:

What can small churches do if they have people with lots of different first languages?

For more free resources, go to churchinterpreting.com

If you are looking for personal help with languages in your church, contact Jonathan here: https://integritylanguages.co.uk/contact/

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Episode 22: Shouldn't people just speak English?

Thu, 30 May 2024 16:05:47 GMT

This season, we're answering questions about multilingual church and church interpreting. In this episode, we start with "When should churches start expecting people to just use English?"

Also, right in the middle of the episode, Jonathan lets you know about a new service to help churches who are looking to become multilingual or who want to improve what they are already offering. For more information, email Jonathan here: https://integritylanguages.co.uk/contact/

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Episode 21: Successful Church Interpreting Takes Effort

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 10:32:41 GMT

This month, Lauryn explores the importance of the interpreter's stage presence and Jonathan asks hard questions about effort.

As always, for more free resources for your church, go to ChurchInterpreting.com.

You can also buy "Multilingual Church: Strategies for making disciples in all languages" from your local Christian bookshop or from here: https://missionbooks.org/products/multilingual-church

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Episode 20: Multilingual Church and the Importance of Discomfort

Mon, 11 Mar 2024 16:21:20 GMT

This month, Lauryn digs into Jonathan's brand new book and we discuss the differences between a church having people who speak different languages and it actually being multilingual. We also ask what it feels like to be a visitor at your church.

You can buy Jonathan's new book here:

https://missionbooks.org/products/multilingual-church

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Episode 19: Interview with Betty Lewis part 2

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 16:21:42 GMT

This month, we finish our interview with Betty Lewis, we talk practical tips and keeping focused on the in in hand.

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Episode 18: Christmas Special

Tue, 19 Dec 2023 16:40:07 GMT

On this Christmas special, Lauryn and Jonathan talk about how to interpret Christmas services effectively.

As ever, for more information and advice, check out ChurchInterpreting.com

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Episode 17: Interview with Betty Lewis, part 1

Thu, 30 Nov 2023 15:49:17 GMT

This month, Lauryn interviews conference and church interpreter, Betty Lewis, about how she got into church and professional interpreting, the skills that carry over,

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Episode 16: Church Interpreting Starter Kit

Thu, 26 Oct 2023 14:34:38 GMT

This month, Lauryn and Jonathan answer questions about the basic skills church interpreters might need and touch on Bible translations, crying in front of patients, and demolition. This is the last in a series of episodes from our recent conversation on church interpreting.

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Episode 15: Sharing the Spotlight

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 20:18:45 GMT

Some preachers might be scared to work with interpreters since it could feel like interpreters will steal the attention. We discuss some good responses to this and laugh about how we are still interpreters even after the service is finished.

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Episode 14: Learning from Church Interpreting and Commercial Interpreting

Thu, 17 Aug 2023 10:04:00 GMT

In this episode, Lauryn and Jonathan discuss how skills from church interpreting apply to commercial interpreting and vice-versa, Lauryn discusses the importance of prayer, and Jonathan talks about how experience changes your decision-making.

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Episode 13: Grief, Racism, and Church Interpreting

Fri, 07 Jul 2023 14:22:07 GMT

[Trigger warning: Grief, mental health, racism]

On this episode, Lauryn talks about interpreting through grief, Jonathan discusses reasons why interpreting might not work in a church, and we have a quick tip with questions for you to answer about interpreting.

As always, for further information or to request personalised support with church interpreting, visit: churchinterpreting.com.

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Episode 12: Church Interpreting is a Team Sport

Thu, 25 May 2023 15:22:31 GMT

On today's episode, Lauryn explains what we can do when the preacher doesn't make any sense, Jonathan explains why the strategy behind church interpreting matters more than the technology used to deliver it and the quick tip covers the importance to team work.

To contact Jonathan, see his website: https://www.integritylanguages.co.uk/

As ever, for more free resources, visit: https://churchinterpreting.com/

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Episode 11: Should Church Interpreting be Professionalised?

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 09:14:06 GMT

In this episode, Lauryn and Jonathan continue their conversation on church interpreting, this time asking that tricky question: should church interpreting be professionalised? On the way, we look at what every church interpreter needs to know, whether you need to be a Christian to interpret in church and how to deal with preachers who tell jokes!

Some of the sources Jonathan talks about include:

Arguing that church interpreting should be professionalised:

Distortion of Meaning in Consecutive Interpreting: Case of ‎Sermons in Selected Multicultural Churches in Maseru by Makhetsi Makha and Lehlohonolo Phafoli: https://www.jallr.com/index.php/JALLR/article/view/1047

Arguing that church interpreting doesn't need to be professionalised:

Challenges Faced by Non-Professional Interpreters in Interpreting Church Sermons in Malaysia by Andrew Kai De Tan, Mansour Amini and Kam-Fong Lee

http://insaniah.umk.edu.my/journal/index.php/insaniah/article/view/129

For wider discussions of what interpreters do, drop Jonathan an email via the ChurchInterpreting.com website.

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Episode 10: Profanity!

Thu, 30 Mar 2023 10:18:28 GMT

What should Christian interpreters do when they have to hear profanity? Is it even possible to have multilingual worship? In this episode, Lauryn and Jonathan answer the question on profanity while our interview guest, worship leader and counsellor Jamie Martinez answers important questions on multilingual worship.

For further information on church interpreting, please visit https://churchinterpreting.com/

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Episode 9: Finding Your Voice

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 11:29:51 GMT

This is the first episode in a series of three, where Lauryn and I talk about big topics in church interpreting. In this episode, we talk about losing and finding your voice as a church interpreter.

For more information on church interpreting, go to https://churchinterpreting.com/.

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Episode 8: Effective church interpreting and the power of language

Tue, 24 Jan 2023 16:02:14 GMT

This month, Lauryn gives us important lessons from the Tower of Babel, Jonathan talks about the attitudes churches need to ensure interpreting is effective, we hear from a regular listener to church interpreting and end with a quick tip on making interpreting usefully visible.

For more free information and guides on church interpreting, visit churchinterpreting.com.

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Episode 7: Receiving from God and Getting the Right Interpreting for Your Church

Fri, 02 Dec 2022 21:49:02 GMT

In this episode, Lauryn talks about the importance of the interpreter receiving from God themselves, Jonathan talks about delivering interpreting in the right way for your church, we have two mini interviews, and we end with a quick tip on feedback.

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Episode 6: What is church interpreting, anyway?

Sat, 29 Oct 2022 13:08:13 GMT

In this special mini-sode, we asked experienced church interpreters to answer the most frequently asked questions about church interpreting. They range from what church interpreting is and why churches offer it to who benefits and what it takes to offer it.

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Episode 5: Accuracy and the Power of Church Interpreting

Thu, 29 Sep 2022 08:26:11 GMT

This month, Lauryn and Jonathan give their takes on what it means for church interpreting to be accurate. We have a mini-interview with Pastor Angelica Bravo of TRIA Tucson, and we end with a quick tip to improve the quality of church interpreting in one easy step.

Do check out the brand new website: ChurchInterpreting.com and find out more about TRIA Tucson on their Facebook page.

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Episode 4: Multilingual Church, the Holy Spirit, and the Importance of Fellowship

Fri, 29 Jul 2022 17:31:12 GMT

This week, with the help of Harvey Kwiyani (@HarveyKwiyani) and Jost Zetzsche (@jeromobot), we discuss how to make church multilingual, the role of the Holy Spirit in interpreting and the importance of fellowship. You can find Harvey's book here: https://amzn.to/3cNwP2g and the Translation Insights and Perspectives tool here: https://tips.translation.bible/

If you have any comments or questions on today's show, please send them to churchinterpreting@integritylanguages.co.uk

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3. Bonus: EST Congress Special!

Fri, 08 Jul 2022 09:35:57 GMT

In this special bonus episode, Lauryn gives us her impressions and three exciting interviews from the EST Congress, at which Jonathan co-chaired a panel on church interpreting research.

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Episode 2: The Kingdom and Difficult Speakers

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 15:44:50 GMT

On this episode, Lauryn takes us through how to deal with difficult speakers; Jonathan interviews theologian of multicultural church, Harvey Kwiyani; and we have an insightful four-minute interview with Pooja Godfrey.

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Episode 1: The Beginning of the Church Interpreting Podcast

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 14:57:52 GMT

In this episode:

Lauryn explains why she created her course for church interpreters and what is in it;

Jonathan looks at the earliest ancestor of all church & synagogue interpreting and why it matters;

And we have a four minute interview with Pastor Mike Lemay.

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