We welcome submissions from songwriters who are connected to a Kentucky Baptist Convention church. At least one writer on each submitted song must be a member of a KBC church.

We’re grateful to have Will Bishop, James Cheesman, Matt Freeman, and Zac James serve as judges, evaluating each submission and selecting the songs for the project.

Dr. Will Bishop is a worship leader, educator, songwriter, and worship researcher. He currently serves as Associate Professor of Music and Chair of Worship and Graduate Studies at William Carey University in Hattiesburg, MS. He is no stranger to Kentucky and the churches of the KBC: Dr. Bishop previously taught on the faculty of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and served as Worship Pastor of Walnut Street Baptist Church in downtown Louisville.

James Cheesman serves as Worship Pastor at First Baptist Church in Farmersville, TX. He teaches adjunct courses in worship at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, including Worship Band Techniques and Songwriting. James served as Music Director for the SBC Annual Meeting in 2023 and has released a couple of albums of original worship music.

Matt Freeman is a worship leader who has spent his entire life in South Carolina. He currently works as the Director of Worship and Music for the SC Baptist Convention where he serves as a resource for nearly 2,000 churches. Along with that, he serves as an elder at the church he helped plant, Mill City Church. Matt also advises as a part of the Leadership Team for The Way of Worship, and he writes and records songs with Mill City Music. He has been married to his wife, Katie, for 15 years, and they have three kids together: Emmerson, Lillian, and Joseph.

Zac James serves as SCBO Worship Consultant for  the state of Ohio. With 21 years of worship ministry experience, including eight years on full-time church staff, he strives to help churches develop worship leaders and teams that glorify the Lord with passion and excellence. He co-leads the Worship 4:24 Conference in partnership with Cedarville University, using that platform to encourage songwriters to write for the local church. His experience includes writing for a local church live recording and serving as a multi-instrumentalist in the local church, studio settings, and state/regional conference teams. He is also the author of Practice to Platform online courses, which help get new worship musicians from scratch to their first worship audition. He attended Cedarville University (B.A., Music; M.B.A.) and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (Advanced M.Div).

Lord willing, the project will be released in Fall 2026.

A gifted and trusted team of musicians will be assembled to serve the project through recording, production, and the release concert. We are grateful to partner with the Norton Hall Band from The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, who will work alongside the Kentucky Baptist Convention to record the selected songs.

The release concert will take place in conjunction with the 2026 Kentucky Baptist Convention Annual Meeting. Additional details regarding date, time, and location will be shared as they become available.

In some cases, the judges may recommend small edits or refinements. Any suggested changes will be discussed collaboratively with the songwriter(s).

The original songwriter(s) will retain full ownership of their work and will receive proper credit as the songwriter(s).

Mechanical royalties generated from this project will be retained by KBC, with proceeds supporting the Cooperative Program. Any songwriting royalties will remain with the songwriter(s).

KBC will be granted the mechanical rights needed to record and release the song and will retain rights only to that specific recording. Songwriter(s) remain free to record, release, or authorize others to use the song in the future at their discretion.

We require that lyrics, melodies, and core musical ideas be the original work of the songwriter(s) and not generated by A.I. Because songs are evaluated on lyrical and melodic content, the use of A.I. to create a demo recording is permitted, so long as the lyrics and melody themselves are fully original.