By admin 
Introduction
Some Gospel songs don’t disappear. They wait.
They wait through changing voices, changing stages, changing seasons of life. And then, when we least expect it, they return — carrying the same melody, the same words, and somehow a completely different weight.
That is what makes the return of “These Are They” so intriguing.
On August 28, the song will reappear as the second single from You Are Loved, the upcoming Gaither Homecoming collection devoted entirely to songs written by Bill and Gloria Gaither. This new recording features Shane McConnell alongside former Gaither Vocal Band member David Phelps.
But the interesting story isn’t simply that David Phelps is singing the song again.
It is what happens when a familiar song enters a new chapter.
The Song We Remember
For longtime followers of Gospel music, “These Are They” carries a history of its own.
David Phelps once sang the song during his years with the Gaither Vocal Band, including performances alongside Bill Gaither and other familiar voices from that era. The song also appeared on the Gaither Vocal Band’s Reunited, a project built around the return of David Phelps, Michael English, Mark Lowry, Wes Hampton and Bill Gaither.
For listeners who lived through those years, that sound is more than a recording.
It is a memory.
It may take only a few notes for someone to remember where they were when they first heard it, who was standing beside them, or how those voices sounded together on a live stage.
That is one of the remarkable things about Southern Gospel.
The music does not simply accompany our lives.
Sometimes, it archives them.
A particular harmony can bring back an entire season.
A familiar tenor can make an old concert feel strangely close again.
And a song we have not heard in years can suddenly remind us of people and places we thought we had left behind.
Then Comes a New Chapter
Now “These Are They” is returning — but not as an attempt to recreate the past.
That distinction may be the most important part of this story.
The new recording is part of You Are Loved, a major Homecoming project built entirely around songs written by Bill and Gloria Gaither. The collection grew out of a remarkable 2025 gathering at TBN Studios in Hendersonville, Tennessee, where more than 250 Gospel, Christian and country artists came together and recorded more than 70 performances.
Among those performances is “These Are They,” featuring Shane McConnell and David Phelps.
And suddenly, the song has a different frame around it.
The old version belongs to one chapter of Gaither history.
The new version belongs to another.
The voice is familiar, but the musical setting has moved forward.
That is exactly how Gospel music has survived for generations.
It remembers without becoming trapped in memory.
What Makes the Return Meaningful
Bill and Gloria Gaither have spent decades writing songs that can travel far beyond the moment in which they were written.
That may be one of the reasons their music continues to find new singers.
A song begins with its writers.
Then another generation records it.
Another generation sings it in church.
Another hears it through a Gaither Homecoming live performance.
Eventually, the song becomes something larger than any single recording.
“These Are They” is especially suited to that kind of journey because its message looks beyond the struggles of the present toward redemption, homecoming and hope.
So when David Phelps returns to it years after his earlier Gaither Vocal Band performances, there is an unavoidable sense of time passing.
But there is also something beautiful about that passage of time.
The singer has changed because life changes every singer.
The audience has changed because life changes every listener.
And yet the song remains capable of carrying its original message forward.
That is not repetition.
That is legacy.
When Harmony Carries Memory
There is a reason longtime Gospel fans respond so strongly to vocal harmony.
A great quartet arrangement is not simply about four or five voices finding the right notes.
It is about voices depending on one another.
A tenor can soar because another voice gives him a foundation.
A bass can ground the arrangement while the upper voices create lift.
And when those parts finally meet, the result can feel almost like a conversation between generations.
That is part of what makes the Homecoming tradition so powerful.
The You Are Loved project brings together more than 250 artists, including the Gaither Vocal Band, The Isaacs, The Martins and David Phelps, while presenting new performances of songs that have already shaped generations of listeners.
It is not simply a collection of old songs.
It is a musical conversation between yesterday and today.
And “These Are They” may be one of the clearest examples of that idea.
The Listener Has Changed, Too
Perhaps the biggest difference between the old recording and the new one is not actually the singer.
It is us.
When many fans first heard “These Are They,” they may have been younger.
Parents were still living.
Children were still growing.
Friends were still gathering at church.
Certain voices seemed as though they would always be there.
Years have a way of changing that.
People move.
Churches change.
Artists enter new seasons.
Some familiar faces leave the stage.
And eventually, songs that once sounded simply beautiful begin to sound personal.
That is where faith enters the story.
The best Gospel songs do not remain frozen in the year they were recorded. They meet us again wherever we happen to be.
Sometimes they encourage us.
Sometimes they comfort us.
Sometimes they remind us of someone we miss.
And sometimes they simply remind us that the message we believed years ago is still worth believing today.
Don’t Expect the Past to Return Exactly as It Was
That may be the best way to approach August 28.
Don’t expect the new “These Are They” to recreate an old Gaither Vocal Band moment note for note.
Listen for something else.
Listen for what happens when a familiar song is carried by a different musical moment.
Listen for the harmony.
Listen for the emotional space between the voices.
Listen for the experience that time has given to a singer who has already walked through several chapters of his career.
And listen as a longtime Gospel song meets a new generation of listeners.
Because the purpose of returning to an old song is not always to make us remember exactly what we heard before.
Sometimes it is to help us hear it differently.
The Song Is Coming Back. And So Is the Memory.
On August 28, David Phelps and Shane McConnell will bring “These Are They” into a new Homecoming chapter. The full You Are Loved project is scheduled for September 25, featuring new performances of songs written by Bill and Gloria Gaither.
We do not know yet exactly what this new performance will mean to listeners.
And perhaps that is part of the beauty.
The song has not arrived with its entire story already written.
There is still a moment waiting for us.
Maybe someone hearing it for the first time will discover a new favorite Gospel song.
Maybe someone who remembers the earlier version will close their eyes and suddenly be back in another season of life.
And maybe someone will realize that the most remarkable thing about an old Gospel song isn’t that we remember it.
It is that we can hear it again and discover something we didn’t hear the first time.
The song is returning.
The voices have changed.
The years have passed.
But the message still has somewhere to go.
August 28.
And this time, perhaps, we will listen a little differently.