“Sing a new song to the Lord;

let the whole earth sing to the Lord.” Psalm 96:1 (CSB)

The Southern Baptist Church Music Conference

New Song Competition

Announcing the 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.

“To Follow Christ”

Barbara Chen

“Find His Mercy at the Cross”

Brandon Sharp

“Face to Face”
Dan Loch

“Marvelous Light (All Praise)”

Michael Logsdon

Competition Details: Winners are contacted in late February or 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 2025 SBCMC Conference at Red Bank Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on March 30-April 1st, 2025, 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 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