Din Frikirke in Haderslev ran its first Sunday with MulingStream on 2 August, as one of the churches in our Pentecost Programme. In September its chairman told us what it had become: a young man from Ukraine, following every Sunday in his own language.
On Sunday 2 August, Din Frikirke in Haderslev gathered for its first Sunday with MulingStream running.
Din Frikirke is a free church in Haderslev, in the south of Denmark. It is not a large church, and it does not run an international service. It is a Danish congregation that decided, this summer, that anyone who walks in should be able to follow along, whatever language they brought with them.
Din Frikirke is one of the churches in our Pentecost Programme, a season of MulingStream for churches that are new to it. We are writing this a few days after that first Sunday, to show what a church like this one actually does on a Sunday morning.
A large city church with a dozen nationalities can plan an interpreter for its biggest language. A smaller church asks a different question: what do we do when one person comes who does not understand us?
One person does not justify booking an interpreter. One person does not fill a row of headsets. And one person is easy to overlook, because a guest who is lost rarely says so. They smile, they nod at the right moments, and they decide quietly whether this is a place for them.
One person is easy to overlook, because a guest who is lost rarely says so.
With MulingStream running, the church does not have to know in advance who is coming. Someone on the tech side starts the room before the service. The guest opens the link or scans the code on their own phone, picks their language, and follows the sermon as it is preached.
They can listen with earbuds or read the translation as text. Reading suits a lot of guests: it is quiet, nobody can see which language you chose, and you can glance back at a sentence you missed. More about this is on how it works for listeners.
The translation carries the meaning, not only the words, with Smart Translation. When the pastor quotes a verse or uses a Danish saying that would mean nothing abroad, Smart Hints put a short note under the line, in the guest's own language.
Since this week, 5 August, the listener screens themselves are translated as well: the buttons, the language picker and the instructions appear in the guest's own language, not only the sermon. For a guest who does not read Danish or English, that is the difference between being helped by someone at the door and simply getting on with it.
There is no cut down version for a small church. Since July, every feature is included for every church, whether it runs translation for one guest or for a hundred: faithful translation, Smart Hints, listening and reading, every language a guest may need. A small church does not have to decide which parts of the welcome it can afford.
And a small church usually has someone who knows the sound system, and very rarely someone who can interpret into Ukrainian. That is the gap MulingStream fills. The person at the sound desk presses start, and the rest happens on the guest's phone.
A first Sunday is not a result, and we will not write one up as if it were. We are telling it because the decision Din Frikirke made is one many small churches are weighing: to be ready for the guest before they arrive, instead of after.
When the church tells us in its own words what it has meant, we will add it here.
At the end of the season we asked Christian Munk, chairman of Din Frikirke, how it had gone. He wrote back without being prompted for anything in particular, and gave us permission to share it:
We have had it in use practically every Sunday, though our usage is not that large. Right now we have a young man who fled from Ukraine and comes on Sundays. His English is not that strong, so it is fantastic to be able to give him the chance to follow along in Ukrainian. Even though it is only him, we currently offer Ukrainian and English.
The young man follows the text on his own phone, and the chairman adds that he is very grateful.
Read the last sentence again: "Even though it is only him." That is the question this post started with, answered by the church itself. Not the Sundays when everyone understands, but the one person who does not. Ukrainian and English run every Sunday, for him.
If your church has one guest like that, you can see how Ukrainian looks on a phone on the Ukrainian language page, and every other language a guest can choose on the languages page. More from Din Frikirke and other churches is on our stories page.
Pastors, chairmen and guests, in their own words.