They are likely to recognize in print names of people and places from the Bible, which they may never have heard spoken. Offering captioning in a church better serves the existing congregation and spreads the Word to those that aren't being reached today. The age group that most wants and needs to hear the sermons is the elderly. These are people who may be embarrassed that they don't hear as well as they used to, and this may lead them to either sit in the pew, not comprehending the sermon, or simply not to attend services at all. When word gets around about captioning, it attracts new members to the church.
Elderly parishioners bring their friends.
Deaf people spread the word through their community. People learning English are better able to understand the service because of these captions, and they, too, spread the word to their compatriots. The Second Baptist Church of Houston, Texas, is a large church, with over 20,000 members on its rolls, making it the largest church in Houston and one of the nation's largest. Each service seats up to 5,000 people at once. In 1996, the church decided that realtime captioning would be a valuable addition to their services.