Jeremy's World

We love you and know you are in a better place with Grandma now.

 
Wayne Eldred Colglazier
January 4, 1926 – March 6, 2008

Wayne E. Colglazier, 82, of Mount Vernon, WA died peacefully Thursday, March 6, 2008 of respiratory illness at Mercy Medical Center in Redding, CA.  Wayne had family at his side when he went to be with his Lord.

He was born January 4, 1926 to Jesse and Helen Colglazier in Farmersburg, IN.  His mother passed away when he was young, and he was raised by his father and his mother’s sister, Delphia.

Wayne and his wife, Shirley K. Colglazier, lived in Washington state most of their adult lives.  After marrying on April 6, 1946 in Seattle, WA, they lived in the Seattle area, Skagit County, and the Yakima area before retiring and traveling the US for 12 years.  After completing their travels, having visited all 50 states, they lived in Redding, CA for 6 years before returning to Mount Vernon, WA in 2003.

Wayne proudly served in the US Navy during WWII, assigned to the aircraft carrier the USS Essex in the Pacific.  After the war, he worked as a Seattle area transit driver.  Following his passion for caring for people – a passion he shared with his wife, Shirley – Wayne then worked at Northern State Hospital in Sedro Woolley, WA and Yakima Valley School in Selah, WA caring for and nurturing physically and mentally challenged children.

He will be remembered most for his care of and dedication to his family.  Wayne was the father of five and was always proud of his kids’ achievements.  He was very dedicated to his Christian faith, active in his church community, and was always good for a deep, passionate conversation on religious and political topics.  Wayne loved the adventure of meeting new people through his hobby as a ham radio enthusiast, known by his call letters K7RKR.  He was also a model train enthusiast and held a private pilot’s license.  Wayne also loved history and relished the time he and Shirley traveled throughout the US.  He is remembered by many in his family and community as a truly good man who loved his family.

Wayne is preceded in death by his parents, his wife, Shirley, a brother and two sisters.  He is survived by two brothers, Wendell and Nelson, and his 5 children and their spouses: Doug & Kathy Colglazier, Debbie & Sherley Buchanan, Brenda Chesnut, Brad & Shelly Colglazier and Scott Colglazier & Pauline McKenzie; 15 grandchildren and their spouses: Jeff & Gina, David & Jody, Joey Colglazier, Amanda & Chris Raymor, Daryl & Shinni, Jesse, Jayme, Chelsie, Deriane, Katlynn Colglazier, Shelley & Matthew Janes, James & Jessica Buchanan, Bradley & Crystal Buchanan, Jeremy & Jennifer Davis and Andrea Chesnut & Christopher Behnke; and 21 great-grandchildren: Levi, Camille, Annalise, Kellen, Tyler and Rio Colglazier, Sarah, Khalie, Rhiley, Matheline and Molleigh Janes, Jayme, Ray, Lily, Jolia and Isabella Buchanan, Emily Davis, Christopher, Faith and Destiny Behnke, Kristopher Kintner and several beloved nieces and nephews.  He is also survived by Jody Colglazier-Wolff, Tammy Colglazier and Mack Davis.  Both Wayne and Shirley were also especially close to Chance and Charlie McKenzie.

Honoring Wayne’s wishes, the family will not be holding a public funeral service.  A private family celebration of Wayne’s life was held.  Inurnment will take place at Tahoma National Cemetery, Kent, WA.  In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made in Wayne’s name to a charity of your choosing.  Arrangements by Kern Funeral Home in Mount Vernon, WA and Allen & Dahl Funeral Chapel in Redding, CA.

Both of you who read my blog know that I play drums in my church worship team.  I enjoy it and sometimes sing (though I drum better than I sing which isn’t saying much).  I was recently made aware of some feedback on our music.

"The band is really great.  But all you do are songs written in the 90’s."

Certainly that can’t be true, right?  It’s not really true.  We do a lot of Chris Tomlin, Tim Hughes, etc. stuff written in the early 2000’s.  But I guess because it’s done so much it just feels old?  Well, and of course those are mixed in with the "Trading My Sorrows" and "Better is One Day" classics.

So last night I stayed up scouring for good worship music written within the last couple of years.  That proved to be a bit of a waste of time.  See, there is a big difference in "good Christian music" and "good worship music."  So much of what I found (and listen to) like Casting Crowns, Jeremy Camp, Building 429, Kutless, etc. have some really great songs.  But, they just aren’t worship songs.  Performance?  Yes.  Worship?  No.

Sadly it seems that good worship music generally has repetitive sections and few, repeated phrases so that they are "easy" to sing.  A lot of Hillsong, Matt Redman and other "usuals" are exactly that.  So what is a worship team looking for something fresh, new and contemporary to do?

Interestingly, nobody seems to have a good answer.  There are a few gems that will come out (and as mentioned above, "all in the 90’s" is an exaggeration) but for the most part, churches who actually report to CCLI on what they are using in church are doing "the usuals."  (No, the irony of me swiping the CCLI logo from their website without express, written consent is not lost on me)

The February top 25:

1. How Great Is Our God
2. Blessed Be Your Name
3. Here I Am To Worship
4. Open The Eyes Of My Hear…
5. Shout To The Lord
6. Holy Is The Lord
7. You Are My King
8. Forever
9. Lord I Lift Your Name On…
10. Come Now Is The Time To …
11. God Of Wonders
12. Everlasting God
13. You Are My All In All
14. We Fall Down
15. The Heart Of Worship
16. You’re Worthy Of My Praise
17. Breathe
18. Trading My Sorrows
19. Beautiful One
20. In Christ Alone
21. I Give You My Heart
22. Days Of Elijah
23. Friend Of God
24. Better Is One Day
25. Above All

Yep.  "The usuals." (and I’m too lazy to link them all for your listening pleasure)

That said, Jennifer’s insight last night was, "Yeah, we’re used to them, but that’s part of what makes them good worship songs.  I want to be able to close my eyes and know the words or be able to catch on the words after one or two times through."

Is familiarity the enemy of creativity?  Or, is it simply a matter of preference?

Have you ever seen the CBS show "NUMB3RS?"  It’s kind of fun – FBI agent solving murders who has a math-geek-university-professor brother.  The math guy applies all of his seemingly superhuman understanding of math, patterns, statistics, algorithms, etc. to find things that otherwise would not have been seen using "pure" police science.  Yeah, it’s often silly but can be entertaining.

I came across the reverse tonight.  Netflix is hosting a contest for people to come up with a movie recommendation system that is 10% better than the one they currently use.  I think it’s brilliant on their part to get ingenious output from people for a relatively low price ($1 million prize) in a method the article calls "crowdsourcing" (very clever).  Anyway, if you can make it through the 4 pages, it’s an interesting read on how a psychologist is applying human psychology to the problem rather than "just" mathematics and computer science…with astonishing results.  Read it from Wired Magazine.