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2014 Ford Neighborhood Awards Hosted By Steve Harvey

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We want to give a “Big” Shout-Out to a man who has set a standard for excellence in gospel music. Pastor Donnie McClurkin who is celebrating his birthday TODAY….Catch The Donnie McClurkin Show weekday morning at 5am on Praise 1300am

Donald Andrew McClurkin, Jr. (born November 9, 1959) is an American gospel music singer and minister. He has won three Grammy awards, ten Stellar awards, two BET awards, two Soul Train awards, one Dove award and one NAACP Image award for his work.

Early life:

McClurkin was born Copiague, New York and raised in Amityville, both on Long Island. When he was eight years old, his two-year-old brother was hit and killed by a speeding driver. After the loss, McClurkin found comfort in church and through an aunt who sang background vocals with gospel music musician Andraé Crouch. He began to play piano and sing with his church youth choir. He formed the McClurkin Singers by the time he was a teenager, and later formed another group, the New York Restoration Choir. He is great.

Ministry:

He was hired as an associate minister at Marvin Winans’ Perfecting Church in Detroit, in 1989. McClurkin served as an assistant to Winans for over a decade.

In 1991, a sharp pain and swelling, followed by internal bleeding led, he says, to a diagnosis of leukemia. The doctor suggested immediate treatment, but McClurkin, who was then 31, decided to take his own advice. “I tell people to believe that God will save you,” he says, “[and] I had to turn around and practice the very thing that I preached.”

He was ordained and sent out by Winans in 2001 to establish Perfecting Faith Church in Freeport, New York, where he is now Senior Pastor.

Music:

A friendship with a Warner Alliance executive resulted in his signing to the label for his 1996 self-titled LP, with producers Mark Kibble of Take 6, Cedric and Victor Caldwell plusAndraé Crouch. The disc, which featured the perennially popular “Stand,” went gold shortly after being publicly lauded by Oprah Winfrey At the 48th Annual Grammy Awards, he won in the category Traditional Soul Gospel Album, for “Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual Songs”. McClurkin is best known for his hit songs “Stand” and “We Fall Down” which were played in heavy rotation on both Gospel and Urban radio. His three solo albums have topped the Billboard charts.

Dovetailing off the success of his near double-platinum selling album,”Live in London and More” McClurkin released “Psalms,Hymns and Spiritual Songs” in 2005 and “We All Are One: Live In Detroit” in 2009 which also topped Billboard charts across various musical genres. McClurkin’s love for people and desire to share gospel music,globally, is why he includes a language medley:Japanese, Russian, Spanish, and Dutch in most live performances.

Radio and television

Tom Versen and Tony Sisti of T&T Creative http://www.tandtcreative.com signed Grammy winner Donnie McClurkin to a radio syndication deal with advertising giant Dial-Global and syndicator Gary Bernstein. T&T Creative provided a mobile recording studio in Pastor Donnie’s church that he can also take on the road. He is quoted as saying “As much as I love music and singing, I really love doing radio and the direct feedback I get from my listeners all over the country. I never thought I would be having this much fun doing radio and I could touch and impact so many people.”

In 2009 he also broadcast his own television show titled “Perfecting Your Faith” on cable television. His television appearances include Good Morning America, CBS Saturday’sEarly Show, and the View. He has also been featured in movies like “The Gospel”, “The Fighting Temptations” and television shows “Girlfriends” and “The Parkers.”

Bio courtesy of Wikipedia.com

Happy Birthday To Pastor Donnie McClurkin!!!  was originally published on praisecleveland.com