Guest Post: Sibu Rajappan, Pastor of Outreach and Internationals of Calvary Church, Charlotte, North Carolina
Nations in Our Backyard
The challenge comes directly from the scriptures. The Mandate of the Great Commission is to make disciples of all the nations. The Lord is bringing the Nations to our backyard. Churches should take it seriously that the Lord is moving in that direction, and we should be open to reaching out to those in the International Community, as the Bible clearly teaches in Galatians chapter 3, verse 28. There is no Greek, no Jew, no slave nor free, but all one in Christ. The mandate given to the church is to make disciples of all nations and to maintain the unity of the spirit in the bonds of Peace. We at Calvary Church strive towards that.
Language of Love: Embracing Multilingual Worship
But the Lord is bringing all kinds of people from different nations to the United States, especially to Charlotte, North Carolina. We enthusiastically welcome everyone in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and for the sake of the Gospel. We have about 43 nationalities represented at Calvary Church today on a given Sunday. We always had a substantial Hispanic population, and there was a need for the worship services to be translated into Spanish as the Lord began to bring people from other nationalities. Over time, more and more people in our church did not speak English. And we had a significant Chinese population at Calvary and a Russian population, all by the Lord’s doing.
Embracing Technology: How Calvary Church Optimized Language Translation
As the number of these communities started increasing, we seriously thought about providing language translation for these communities. We used to use audio packs, which came out of the AV system, the audio video system from our worship service. That was not scalable, and replacing defective packs proved to be expensive. So we were looking for a wireless system and tried a couple of them, but none suited our purpose. Then we found out about PhoneLive.io streaming.
Remote Worship: The Transition Amidst the Pandemic
During the COVID season, we could not have people come into the sanctuary. PhoneLive.io was a lightweight system that leveraged cell phones to broadcast and translate into regional languages. When we were in person, we were using the audio packs that people would need to check out before the service and return at the end of the service. COVID restricted us from using the audio packs. We had to look for alternate solutions that could work well with live streaming.
Streamlining Translations Services at Calvary Church
So, our translators do not need to come into the building to provide translation services. They can listen to the live stream and translate through PhoneLive.io streaming today. Because of PhoneLive.io streaming, we can now have members who do not speak English bring their own phones in place of audio packs. They don’t have to sit in a particular location. They can just use their phones anywhere in the sanctuary and listen to the translation.
Ensuring Continuity Amidst Attendance Challenges
The technical difficulties that we’ve had with wireless systems are not present right now with this new system. So, it’s been a blessing today. We do have several people listening in to our translation system remotely. It’s been a huge blessing for us if someone cannot come into the building because of sickness, because life happens, or because of some circumstances in their lives, they can still listen to the translation while watching the live stream.
Why PhoneLive.io?
For one, the scalability factor. So we were able to have more. Now, we have three languages that we are simultaneously translating, which can be expanded into many more languages without the substantial additional cost of having audio packs or server expansion. That is a blessing. Also, there is the flexibility to be able to provide translation even with the translators not in the building or the listeners not in the building. Thanks to PhoneLive.io, they can watch the live stream and listen to the translation.