A church deciding whether to try live translation listens to another church far more than it listens to us. So we ask churches that have used MulingStream to tell it in their own words, in one of four ways they choose themselves, and we say thank you with passes. We publish their exact words, only on our website.
A church deciding whether to try live translation trusts another church far more than it trusts us.
We can explain what MulingStream does. We can show it live and answer every question. But when a pastor wonders whether it will really work in their room, with their guests, on an ordinary Sunday with a volunteer at the sound desk, what settles it is another church saying: this is what it was like for us.
So we ask the churches that have used it to tell that story. And because their time is worth something, we say thank you with passes.
A few lines in your own words are the most useful thing we can show another church. Honest matters more than polished: what worked, what did not, what surprised you. A testimony that sounds like an advert helps nobody; a real Sunday does.
Giving one is entirely your choice. If your church would rather not, nothing changes and nobody will ask again and again.
Each church chooses how it wants to tell its story. There are four ways, from a few lines to a short video, and each has its own thank you.
1. A story from your congregation. A few lines about a listener, with your church's name. No listener is named unless they have told you it is fine. For example: a guest who has come for two years and came up after the service to say he had finally understood the whole message. Our thank you: 2 Service Passes.
2. A testimony in your name. A few lines from you, with your church's name, your name and your role in it. Our thank you: 3 Service Passes.
3. Your testimony, your logo, your face. The same few lines, with your church's logo, your name, your role and a photo of you. The logo and the face are what make a visiting church believe it. Our thank you: 5 Service Passes.
4. A short video. Thirty to ninety seconds, recorded on a phone, with your church's logo and the name of whoever is speaking. It can be you at the front of the church in one take, or a listener telling their own story. If you are more comfortable in your own language, speak in that: we add the subtitles ourselves. Our thank you: 7 Service Passes.
The thank you is your choice too. Each way also offers other passes of about the same worth, such as Hour Passes or Day Passes, and a church with a camp or a conference coming can take a Week Pass instead. What each pass covers is on the church pricing page.
Each church can give two testimonies, and each of the four ways once. The example we give on the page: a written testimony with your logo now, and a video of your listeners later. Both thank yous land on your account. Two shorter ones are just as welcome.
This is the part we hold ourselves to most carefully.
We publish your exact words. We may shorten them, but we never add to them or change what they say. Only on our website. On the testimonials page, on a use case page such as churches, or selectively on the homepage. Never on other websites, and never on social media. In the languages the site is in. Our site is read in many languages, so we may translate your testimony into them, so that a church in another country can read it in its own language. Small slips stay yours. If a word slips in the original, we keep your word and put the correction in square brackets right after it, so the reader sees both. If you describe a feature without its name, we add the name the same way: "the little explanation boxes [Smart Hints]". In a translation, which is ours anyway, we simply get it right.
Answering two or three questions in your own words is already a testimony. The page offers a list to start from, such as:
What problem did MulingStream solve for your church? Before, what did people who did not speak your language do on a Sunday? Which languages did you have no interpreter for, and what happened to those people? How good was the translation? Did the meaning come through? Did Smart Hints help your congregation follow the sermon? What did a listener say to you afterwards? What would you tell a church like yours that is still deciding?
We deliberately do not ask whether it is better than a human interpreter. Many churches have volunteers who interpret with love every week, and no pastor should be asked to rank them in public.
In your church dashboard, under Get free passes, open Give a testimony. It opens once your church has held its first gathering on a pass, because that is the experience worth telling.
The button on the page opens a mail with the details already filled in. Add the name of your church, who is giving the testimony and their role, the email of your MulingStream account so the passes land in the right place, which thank you you would like, and the testimony itself, with your logo, your photo or your video attached or as a link. There is no form to fill in and nothing to upload.
We read it, add the passes to your account and send you a mail saying so.
A few honest lines in your own words are the most useful thing we can show another church.
If you want to see what other churches have already said, the testimonials page has their stories, in their own words.
Real Sundays, told by the churches that held them, in their own words.