Donnie McClurkin tops gospel chart

|PIC1|The latest album by gospel music artist Donnie McClurkin landed in the No 1 position on Billboard’s Gospel Sales chart nearly three weeks after its release.

We All Are One (Live in Detroit), McClurkin’s first album in five years, is also No 7 on Billboard's R&B Albums Chart, No 26 on its Top-200 Albums Chart, and No 1 on CMTA's Top Christian/Gospel Albums chart.

Released March 31, We All Are One is an eclectic recording that McClurkin says was created to magnify the glory of God and how wonderful He is.

The gospel minister says it was also created to remind listeners that "despite differing opinions, backgrounds, ethnicities and religious affiliations – we all are one, we're one family".

“Jesus said, ‘A house divided against itself cannot stand,’ yet we remain disconnected: Republicans and Democrats, Blacks, Whites, Yellows and Browns, Baptists and Methodists, Lutherans and Episcopalians … Where is the unity,” McClurkin asks.

Though McClurkin grew up learning to judge others, he says his thinking now is to “let God do the judging so that I may learn how to love and understand the ways in which we are all connected”.

“I believe that lesson of compassion and fellowship will ultimately be learned by the young ones coming behind me,” he adds.

Unity and tolerance are the themes of the 12-song We All Are One, which McClurkin says he recorded in Detroit in hopes of bringing churches together there to aid in the healing of the city.

“Even with Detroit’s tough transitions and hard situations, the church has always been the mainstay that holds everything together,” he says.

McClurkin’s latest album includes special guest contributions by Karen Clark Sheard, CeCe Winans, Yolanda Adams, and Mary Mary.

Co-producers on the album include Asaph Ward – who has worked with Dorinda Clark-Cole, Kim Burrell and Smokie Norful – as well as producers Justin Savage and Trent Phillips.