Transcribe sermons for churches

What the text is for

Most congregations use a transcript in one of four ways: a written sermon on the church website, a summary in the bulletin, captions on a streamed service, or a copy for members who are deaf or hard of hearing. Each starts from the same draft. Decide which you need first, because it changes how much editing is worthwhile.

A simple workflow

1. Take the audio feed from the sound desk if you can: it is cleaner than a phone at the back of the nave.
2. Upload the file above. For a service recorded in another language, set that language.
3. Read the transcript while listening to the passages you want to quote.
4. Check every name, place and reading. Scripture references and quotations should be checked against the preacher's notes or the text itself.
5. Export plain text for the page or bulletin, or SRT or VTT for a video.

Scripture, hymns and liturgy

Spoken verses, readings in older or formal language, and congregational responses are easy to mishear, and sung hymns are not what a speech transcriber is built for. Never publish a quoted passage from the draft without comparing it to the source. Where a service mixes languages, have someone who knows both read it through. Prayers and responses that the whole room says together are recorded faintly compared with the speaker at the microphone, so expect gaps there.

Permission and privacy

Sermons are public speech, but services also capture members, children and prayer requests. Agree with the preacher and the church leadership before posting a transcript, remove anything personal from a published version, and take care with recordings that include other people's voices, such as testimonies. Uploading sends the audio to our server.

Drafts you review

The text is a draft, and a church page or caption file that misquotes a reading is worse than none. Have the preacher or a volunteer proof it. Without an account one file can be up to 15 minutes and 25 MB. A free account lifts those per-file limits and keeps your transcripts in a library you can search, so for a full-length recording create one instead of cutting the file up. Speaker labels, with a free account, help when there is a reader and a preacher.