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Some time back, we had a discussion on this blog and elsewhere over the fact that the artwork on Ernie Haase & Signature Sound’s Get Away Jordan CD/DVD was going to catch eyes. Well, it turns out that those who thought it would were right.

In its first week out, the Get Away Jordan CD and DVD had sales numbers unprecedented for any Southern Gospel project, ever since people have been keeping track of national sales figures.

Be watching for a press release that will officially announce that the Get Away Jordan DVD will debut at #1 on the Billboard Music Video chart for this week. Also, the Get Away Jordan CD is debuting at #1 on CCM Magazine’s chart of the most widely sold Christian CD this week.

Signature Sound founder Ernie Haase views the project as a “gospel tract,” to get your attention and then present the Gospel. And that, more than anything else, is why he is excited about the number of unchurched people who will hear and be touched by this project.

Much has been made of the fact that Singing News has eliminated many categories in the Fan Awards. I must admit, I don’t really like the fact that the favorite Male Quartet, Mixed Quartet, Trio, Bass, Baritone, Lead, and Tenor awards were dropped. But I haven’t quite been able to find a way to express my feelings…until now.

Now I am not a sports fan, but many of you are. Just suppose that the rankings for favorite football team were eliminated. Suppose the rankings for best baseball team were eliminated. Suppose the rankings for best basketball team were eliminated. Instead, all the rankings were combined into one overall ranking, “best team.”

Wouldn’t that be much better? That way, rather than spreading the awards around into so many different categories, thereby diluting their impact, we could just point to one team and say that it was the best sports team in the United States.

But wait a minute, you might say. The different teams all play sports, but they do it in very different ways.

And that thought, applied to Southern Gospel, is my point precisely.