Well, excuuuuuuuuuse me, gospel consumers! Y’all flipped the Billboard charts upside down, huh?
Look for the chart on the sidebar to your right. 
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Heather Headley’s gospel album debuts at #1, bumping Mary Mary to #2. But Marvin Sapp sat at #2, so you’d think he’d now be #3, right? Noooooo… The #3 spot was nabbed by Crystal Aikin’s debut album. Marvin Sapp is now at #4. And who’s following closely behind him at #5? Shari Addison!
Three new artists (I’m counting Heather Headley as “new” to gospel) have debuted in the top 5 in their first week? Impressive.
And, as an FYI, Heather Headley is also #1 on the Christian chart and #6 on the R&B chart. She’s kinda not playin’.
Well, I'm not surprised. Crystal Aikin & Shari Addison both had some serious national tv exposure, so I expected there sales to be well. It's so hard to promote and market a new artist, so being able to perform every week on bet is a definite advantage. Look at the new artists for the Stellar Awards: most of them you had really never of until the nominations were announced. Because of that exposure on BET, Crystal Aikin and Shari Addison were already popular names in the industry, and even more important, they had fan bases before their projects even came out. I'm happy for the both of them cause they both are extremely talented! I also figured Heather Headley would be number 1, like you said, even though its her first gospel project, she's definitely not a new artist, and has a solid fan base already in tact. On top of that, I'm sure she's won over some new gospel fans with that great rendition of Jesus is Love. Her project is full of "cover" songs, which will make it easier for new fans to get with her cause they will have already heard the songs before.
Hmmm, I'm not sure I know how I feel about this yet....
Heather Headley is only number 1 because she has good exposure at Retail. That's it. There is NOTHING else moving that record -- and what's more unfortunate is that this is just a "one-off" for her. She'll go right back to singing R&B or Broadway or whatever tickles her fancy. Just as mentioned in another post, this is an example of treating Gospel as just another genre.