NASHVILLE – Chris Tomlin has become the fourth Christian music artist ever to garner the number one position on the Billboard 200.
Tomlin’s “Burning Lights” sold 73,000 copies in its opening week, fueled in large part by Passion 2013 in Atlanta.
The conference for college-aged Christians, where the singer-songwriter led worship, had 60,000 attendees and more than 100,000 online viewers.
According to Billboard, 40 percent of the figures tracked by the music trade magazine were sales related to Passion or churches.
Tomlin’s album, topping the Jan. 26 chart, follows tobyMac, who last September became the first Christian artist in 15 years to take the peak position with his latest album, “Eye on It.”
“Burning Lights” was also Tomlin’s fourth album to sit atop Billboard’s Christian Albums chart.
The debut was the largest ever for Tomlin and the largest sales week for any Christian album since Casting Crowns’ “Come to the Well” in 2011.