Song Writing Competition
“Sing a new song to the Lord;
let the whole earth sing to the Lord.”
– Psalm 96:1 (CSB)
let the whole earth sing to the Lord.”
– Psalm 96:1 (CSB)
The Southern Baptist Church Music Conference New Song Competition
Competition Details: The deadline for all song submissions is February 1, 2026. Winners are contacted by early March. The judges may suggest a few edits or rewrites for the winning songs, and the winners will be consulted about how the songs will be introduced live. Each winning song will be introduced live for congregational singing at the annual Conference during a special session, and sheet music will be published through www.sbcmc.org as well as the MyScore network FREE of charge. (Check it out here: https://www.jwpepper.com/myscore ) Many thanks to J.W. Pepper for sponsoring this additional promotion!
2025 Winners
On behalf of the Southern Baptist Church Music Conference and the SBCMC Songwriting Judges, we are excited to announce the winning songs for our 2024-2025 songwriting competition. In all, there were 93 new song entries submitted this year, and the following songs were the top four selected winners. Thank you to everyone who submitted their songs to help us write new and great music for the church to sing in congregational worship.
2025 Judges
Dennis Allen, three-time Dove-Award Winning arranger and composer
Claire Hilliard, Prolific songwriter and recording artist; member of the Getty Music International Hymn Writing Collective and Nashville Songwriter’s Association
James Cheeseman, accomplished writer, arranger, and recording artist; served in worship leadership for the Southern Baptist Convention and on faculty for Southwestern Seminary