Translating Your Content

When to Translate

Translation is for ministries that are truly international or global in scope. If that’s you, we’d love to hear from you. If your content was written for a specific context or audience, keeping it in its original language is a faithful choice. Either way, good translation takes more than swapping words from one language to another. It takes context, and it has to stay true to what you meant.

Some content travels well. It’s excellent, and its truth holds up across cultures, not just in the one it was written for — and we’re glad to see that kind of content multiply into new languages. What we don’t want to see is content pushed into every language just because AI makes that easy now, whether or not it was ever built to travel that far.

📌 Non-Negotiables

1. An honest audit. Ask yourself honestly: does your content genuinely resonate broadly, across cultures, or is it tied closely to a specific context, audience, or ministry? Either can be true — just be clear about which one you’re working with.
2. Native-speaker review. Every translation, no matter how many languages you’re working in, needs a native speaker to review it for theological accuracy, cultural context, and language fluency — not just how it sounds. By submitting translated content, you’re agreeing it’s met that bar, in every language, every time.
3. Official Scripture translations. When your content quotes Scripture, readers take those words as God’s Word, not as your rendering of it. Translating a verse yourself or with AI can shift its meaning without anyone noticing. Scripture quotations in translated content must come from an official Bible translation in that language, preferably one available in the Bible app. Official translations are the careful work of translators and reviewers who serve the communities reading them, and Bible societies and publishers around the world have generously made them available to everyone in our apps. Quoting them keeps Scripture as they stewarded it and honors their gift. (Example: If your English content quotes the NIV, your Portuguese translation should quote the Nova Versão Internacional, NVI — not a new translation of the NIV text.)
4. Links in the reader’s language. Every link in translated content, including your Partner URL, CTA links, and supplemental resources, needs to work for the people reading in that language. Check that each destination is available in the Plan’s language, not just in the original. If a page doesn’t exist in that language yet, swap in one that does, or leave the link out.

Translation Best Practices

✅ What To Do

1. Watch for idioms and figures of speech. A phrase that lands well in your original language (“count your blessings,” “on fire for God,” any sports metaphor) may confuse people, or even carry the wrong theological meaning, translated word-for-word into another language.
2. Look for translators who know your ministry’s voice, not just the language. A technically accurate translation can still lose what makes your content yours.
3. Many translations start with AI or translation software, and that’s fine. It can help reviewers compare side by side for accuracy and tone. It can’t be where the process ends: a native speaker still has to review the full translation against the original.

❌ Things To Avoid

1. If your content includes excerpts used with permission, confirm that permission specifically covers translation. Rights to use content in its original language don’t automatically include the right to translate it — that’s often licensed separately.
2. If your translation involved AI at any point, disclose it — see Giving Credit for where that note belongs.

Adding a New Content Language

If you have content in a language we don’t yet support, we want to hear from you! Launching a new content language starts with a strong foundation: at least three Partners and twelve pieces of content, so people searching in that language find real variety, not a single voice.