How to run a bilingual church service

Updated 19 October 2026

A bilingual church service brings two language groups together for one service, in the US most often English and Spanish. This guide sets out four ways to do it, goes through the order of service item by item, shows how to put slides and song lyrics in two languages, and ends with a sample run sheet and the mistakes to avoid.

Four ways to run a bilingual church service

Many US churches worship in two languages. In the National Congregations Study's survey of 2018-19, 10% of US congregations had a service in Spanish or in Spanish and English, and about one in five people who attend worship were in those congregations source. In a Lifeway Research survey of 554 pastors of Hispanic Protestant congregations in 2023, 18% led every service in both languages, and 12% held separate services in Spanish, in English or in both source.

1. Two languages on the slides. Songs, readings and the main points of the sermon go on the screen in both languages. The spoken parts stay in one language, or move between the two. Nobody extra is needed on stage, only a slide volunteer who prepares both languages. It works best when most people follow some of both.
2. A live interpreter. Beside the pulpit, the interpreter repeats each sentence in the other language, so everyone hears both, and everything spoken takes close to twice as long. With headsets, the interpreter speaks into a microphone at the back of the room while the preacher carries on, and listeners hear it on receivers. In the Lifeway survey, 23% of the churches whose services were not all bilingual offered translation into English each week, by headset or in part of the room source. The equipment guide sets out what headsets cost.
3. Live captions. A computer at the sound desk sends the service's sound to Livefy, which translates it online. The words show as captions on the room's screens, in ProPresenter, OBS or vMix, and on guests' own phones with no app, where a translated voice can read them aloud for headphones. Nobody stops to repeat anything, and a third group can follow too, in any of 109 languages. Like any live translation, it makes mistakes, most often with names, uncommon words and unclear sound. Each caption language uses its own hours: the hours estimator works out a month, and pricing shows the plans. The guide to translating a sermon live walks through a Sunday, and the demo church shows the page guests open on their phones.
4. Separate services that join on some Sundays. Each group keeps its own service most weeks, and both meet on chosen Sundays: Christmas Eve, Easter, Pentecost (Acts 2), a baptism Sunday or the church's anniversary. A Lifeway Research article on bilingual worship notes that adding a bilingual service as an extra asks less of a church than making it the only service source.

These mix well: slides in both languages for everyone, and an interpreter or captions for the sermon.

The order of service, item by item

• Welcome. Two hosts, one for each language, or one host who speaks both. Keep it short: a greeting, the theme of the day, and where to find the phone link or the headsets. Say it in both languages, a sentence or two at a time.
• Songs in both languages. Choose songs that have a published version in both languages. Sing a verse and chorus in one language, then in the other, or sing the chorus in both. Two songs in English followed by two in Spanish leaves each group waiting for its turn source.
• Readings. One passage, read by two readers, one in each language, or read once with the other language on the screen. Give the reference in both languages, as book names differ (John is Juan in Spanish), and use the Bible version each group already knows.
• Sermon. Keep to one main passage. A translated sermon takes longer, and a pastor writing for Lifeway Research keeps to one passage of no more than ten verses source. With an interpreter, the preacher says a sentence, pauses, and looks at the people rather than at the interpreter. With captions, the preacher speaks as usual.
• Prayer. Let a leader from each group pray. A prayer in one language reaches the other group through the interpreter or the captions. For the Lord's Prayer, invite everyone to pray it together, each in their own language.
• Announcements. Put them on slides and in the bulletin in both languages, and speak only the two or three that matter most. Reading every notice twice makes the service long.
• Communion. Say plainly, in both languages, who may take part, whether people come forward or stay seated, and how the bread and the cup are served. Put the same instructions on a slide in both. The words of institution (1 Corinthians 11:23-26) can be read in one language with the other on the screen.

Slides and song lyrics in two languages

• One language on top, the other below, in the same order on every slide, all service long. Set the second language in another colour or in italics, so each reader finds their own lines at a glance.
• Fewer lines on each slide. Two languages double the words. Two to four lines of each is plenty; split a long verse over two slides.
• The same line breaks. Where the two versions follow the same tune, break them at the same place, so both groups sing the same line at the same time.
• The published version of each song. Under the CCLI Church Copyright License, a church may translate the words of a song the license covers only when no published version in that language exists, and only for its own services source. Look for the published version first.
• Captions beside the slides. With live captions, the sermon slides can go on the screens with the translation beside them, so nobody chooses between the slide and the words. The setup guide shows how. The lyrics are already on the screen in both languages, so press Pause for the songs and Resume when the speaking starts again.

What volunteers do

• Two hosts, one from each group, who welcome people, link the parts and give the announcements. A leader from each group up front tells both groups the service is theirs.
• Worship leaders who sing in both languages, or one leader for each.
• A slide volunteer who builds the slides in both languages during the week and asks a native speaker to read the second language before Sunday.
• Readers, one for each language.
• An interpreter, if you use one, with a second to take turns in a long service.
• A sound volunteer who gives the interpreter a microphone, or sends the service's sound to the captions computer.
• A captions volunteer, who can be the same person, who starts the captions, presses Pause for the songs and Resume after them.
• Greeters from both groups, who hand out the bulletin in both languages, point people to the QR code for phones or to the headsets, and help families sit together.

Hold a run-through before the first joint service, and meet for ten minutes after it to agree what to change.

A sample run sheet

A joint service at 10:00, about 75 minutes long, with the sermon in English. Change the times and languages to suit your church. With an interpreter beside the pulpit, keep the sermon's time slot and plan half as much to say.

Captions for the parts spoken in Spanish need Livefy set for both languages, as the question below about a preacher who switches explains, and each caption language uses its own hours.

Common mistakes

• Saying everything twice. Repeat what matters: the welcome, the reading, the sermon and the communion instructions. Put the rest on the screen.
• An interpreter who first sees the sermon on Sunday. Send the outline, the references and the names ahead.
• Jokes and sayings that do not cross over. A play on words often falls flat in the other language. Choose stories both groups know.
• One group always up front. If one group leads everything, the other feels like guests.
• Phones as the only way to follow. Not everyone will use a phone in church. Keep both languages on the slides.
• No run-through. A slide out of order or a microphone left off is easier to fix on Saturday than in front of everyone.

Questions

How long should a bilingual church service be?

About as long as your usual service, if you plan for it. An interpreter beside the pulpit nearly doubles everything spoken, so cut elsewhere: fewer songs, one short passage, announcements on the screen. With slides in both languages, captions or headsets, the preacher does not stop for anyone.

Should the sermon be in English or Spanish?

Preach in the language the preacher speaks best, and give the other group the sermon through an interpreter, headsets or captions. Or take turns from week to week.

Can live captions follow a preacher who switches between English and Spanish?

Livefy usually listens for one language, the one set as the speaker language. If the preacher moves between English and another language, set the speaker language to the one used most; Livefy still hears the other. For English and Spanish, that means Spanish first, with English added as a second caption language for the people who read English. Each caption language uses its own hours. If your preacher switches often, run a few minutes of it before Sunday.

How often should our English and Spanish services worship together?

Start with a few Sundays a year, such as Christmas Eve, Easter and Pentecost. Ask both groups afterwards what helped and what did not, then decide whether to meet more often.

First 4 hours free, no credit card. Then from $45 a month.

More guides: How to translate a sermon live · Church translation equipment: headsets, receivers or phones · AI translation for church: how to introduce it to your congregation · Church interpreter tips: how to interpret a sermon well · Live translation for Zoom, Google Meet and Teams church meetings · How to become a multilingual church · all church translation guides