SBC WORSHIP:
CONGREGATIONS AND LEADERSHIP STUDY 2026
Thank you for your interest in the SBC Worship: Congregations and Leadership Study. This survey is conducted by the SBC Worship Research Committee, which exists to serve the church by providing research-driven insights that encourage healthy, biblically-faithful worship. The survey is funded and sponsored by SBC Worship in conjunction with The Worship Initiative. Your participation in this survey will help us better understand current trends and practices regarding church music and worship in Southern Baptist churches.

Once you begin, the following survey should take roughly 10–15 minutes to complete. The majority of the questions involve selecting answers from a list. Please select the answer that best describes your congregation and your church’s leadership. If you are dissatisfied with the available answers, please select “none of these” or “other.”

The focus of this survey is worship and church music practices in Southern Baptist churches, and this survey is intended only for churches affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. If your church is not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention at a state or national level, please do not take this survey.

The ideal candidate for filling out this survey is the worship leader, music minister, or senior pastor of your congregation. Regardless of who fills out the survey, we only need one response per church. For multisite congregations, we generally ask that only one person complete the survey as a representative of your church.

Any information gathered in this survey is completely confidential and will remain private. At the end of the survey, we offer you the option to provide us with your email address. Your email address allows us to follow up with you as needed regarding your answers, to notify you of the survey results when they are available, and to provide you with additional research study opportunities like this in the future. Your responses—including your church name, your church location, and your email—will not be included in any publication of the findings from this survey.

The SBC Worship Research Committee will share results and analysis from this survey on June 8 at the SBC Worship Micro Conference 2026. If you are in Orlando for this year's SBC Annual Meeting, please make plans to join us as we discuss our findings. If you have any additional questions about the survey or its uses, please contact the SBC Worship Research Committee via email at research@worshipinitiative.com.

SBC Worship Research Committee:
Will Bishop (William Carey University)
Andrew Lucius (Charleston Southern University)
Jonathan Rodgers (Samford University)
Jonathan S. Welch, chair (Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary)
Chessa Williams (California Baptist University)
Andrew McKinney (The Worship Initiative)

Next page:
Section 1 of 4
(14 questions)
120%