OH man!  i love this question!  There are a ton of really good acoustic guitar makers out there.  Acoustics more so than electrics depend on the craft of the maker, (though you can get lucky sometimes on cheaper instruments).  I personally do not like Taylors, as I find them too bright in general.  I am much more a fan of Martins.  I have neither though.  I play a martin style guitar from a smaller maker in california called the santa cruz guitar company.  http://www.santacruzguitar.com/

i play their OM model (the regular version).  It's phenomenal.  It is nice and rich, and has suprising low end for what is now a smaller guitar.  It's light, it fits my hand so well.  A lot of people who play it think it's the easiest playing acoustic that they've ever played!  So if you have the opertunity to check one out, do it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hD7RAdeCV0

watch the beginning of that video to learn a bit about why a smaller maker is better (not all are as good as santa cruz, but they are certainly not the only good option either)

where do you live?

a good way to learn about what premium guitars are out there is to check out a premium guitar store.  You can usually find at least one in every state.  Even if you don't live close, you can check out the website(like this one

http://www.artisanguitars.com/ ) to learn what other brands might be interesting to you.

One last word of advice....buy used.  You're going to save a ton of money, or, more importantly, the value is going to go up tremendously for you.  You can buy a new $2000 guitar for $2000 or maybe get a used $3500 guitar for $2000.  The biggest upside is that a lot of times when you buy used the owners have taken the time to put good quality electronics in already, plus if you watched that second video you'll recall that the older wood is the better its tone.

hope that helps!

By "good" I assume you are talking about quality.  In my experience, once you get into the $1000 and above price range, quality is not so much the variable as tone.  Sure, you could buy a Mcpherson guitar for $10,000 but there is not a huge difference in the reliability or longevity of the instrument.  It's all in how you take care of it.

I agree with hitchface and suggest you find the body style that best suits the type of sound you are going for.  Play the different body styles.  As a general rule of thumb, the shape below the sound hole effects the bottom end and the shape above the sound hole effects the mids and highs.  The depth (soundboard to back) effects the volume.  Once you determine the shape you want, shop around, play as many guitars with that body style as possible.  Take note of the type of wood used for the soundboard. 

For instance, I am a heavy strummer and ocassionaly venture into some fingerstyle, so I settled on a classic dreadnaught body style.  The dreadnaught gave me the "unplugged" volume I need and didn't "squash" when I got really vigorous with my strum.  I played every dreadnaught I could get my hands on.  It was pretty easy to narrow down which guitars didn't suit me.  Some guitars just felt better in my hands.  Some guitars made me feel like a "better" guitar player than I actually am. 

I ended up narrowing my selection down to a few dreadnaughts that just felt right.  A Martin, a Taylor, an Alvarez, and a Tacoma.  All had electronics and all were beautiful guitars.  I was extremely partial to a Taylor with a western red cedar top.  The western red cedar mellowed out the tone just a little bit more than the typical spruce that they use.  However, it was just too far out of my price range. 

After a couple of weeks, I was getting ready to make my purchase.  I told the sales person my delemma.  He just stared at me wide-eyed.  "We just that SAME guitar in off of demo!"  Needless to say I walked out of the shop with the Taylor for less than half the list price.  (Divine intervention?  I think so!)

So, play every guitar you can get your hands on, narrow it down, ask about dealer demos, look for used, and be patient.  Once you get the guitar, take care of it!

Happy hunting.

I know you say acoustic, but as a fellow worship leader my acoustic is solid body, well chambered. I got my acoustic for home, small group and such. But if you are talking leading, plugged in then here are my suggestions.

Find a Line 6 acoustic vairax 700. The modeling is amazing, you get alt tunings in a heartbeat, plus you keep the feel of an electric. I use Thomastick 009 flatwound classical strings on mine. What is great about this is that it interfaces with what you have at your feet. Spend some time tweaking and each time you step on the pedal you have either a different guitar or same guitar alternate tuning.

You might also want to look into a Crowdster, they pop up occasionally on eBay. Likewise a Gibson Chet Atkins SST, which is my go to stage guitar.

But if you don't like the sound of any of those, get a Godin. Same music group as Breedlove and Seagull. Look for a Multiac Steel. they are all over eBay occasionally you can find the first generation which has two condensor mics as well as a transducer that you can mix and blend. These are just pheonominal guitars.

But if you are looking at acoustic, real acoustic. Check out Applied Acoustics, they make "solid" cabon fiber guitars. I have a secret love affair for them.

I would also say check out a Parker p10e. It has a very slim electric neck, great sound and you can find them pretty cheap.

Yamaha and Takamine are also great choices, bud sadly only the high end gives their name any credit. When I was living in Japan Yamaha and Takamine guitars were just to drool over, picked on up here in the states and was sadly dissapointd.

The biggest question to me, isn't your playing style but what you want in sound. Do you want big, and plugged in, or silent stage line out. And of course do you want to look cool and have people say, "What kind of guitar is that?!" ( joking a little)  Eventhough I have a Gibson and  a Martin I didn't get them for the name, I got them because they were the sound and look, feel I wanted. My Chet provides me a great recording guitar and stage guitar, that if needed I can use with heavier effects. My Line 6 is the same, though I use her more if I want something small and light to carry, or I just want one guitar or my set requires more sound. My Martin OMC-15e has nothing church related. It gets banged on by the kids, sees the beach, etc. My Martin is my third kid. I have a Parker p10e it was bought as a replacement guitar, I love it just don't play it that much cause it is just too pretty, sad to say. So it sits in the case in the closet.

I'm a medium to heavy strummer and chose my acoustics based off of the fact that they are an easy transition from my Parker Fly and Nitefly and Pm-20 Pro.

And yes I have a lot of guitars, I'm lucky to be a stay at home dad by day, worshiip leader youth guy at night. BUT I bought every guitar used, clearanced or liquidated. So I completely agree with Gurumonkey. But if you are interested in a Martin give them a call, they are pretty friendly to worship leaders and military. Mcphearson are as well, though you will still pay $4K. I lucked out I was in the market when the economy took a big dive and I had two jobs and my wife was getting a higher pay grade. But on eBay there are still a lot of guys needing the cash or the wife's are forcing the extra kids out.  Good luck

I play a Taylor 814ce for P&W.  It sounds as good amplified as it does unamplified.  The Taylor x14 series is very versitlie,  I see them quite often for P&W.  That said, play a few different guitars and listen to what plays well and sounds good to you.