The Results Are In! Let The Arguments Begin!

Apostolic Survey - Part One
January 24, 2000

When the century began fading, ninetyandnine.com looked around and realized that for all of the "End of Century polls & surveys, none made an effort to sample today’s Apostolic experience. The beauty of this survey, we decided, would be its respondents. Since no one could possibly be an expert in all of our categories, it would be a clean reflection of the body of Christ at Century’s end.

Thus, we created an exhaustive survey that had only two rules: 1) Respondents aren’t required to answer every category; 2) Turn in your responses by the deadline.

Of course, the feedback was instantaneous: "I started answering the questions, but I stopped after 5-6 because I felt stupid." and "Can’t you give us more time?" and "Why don’t you simply ask a few questions each week so that we’ll be able to focus." But we didn’t actually get any surveys.

Then we realized a very important fact about surveys - everyone likes to read the results, but almost no one likes to fill them out. So we resorted to arm-twisting, public ridicule, and calling in almost every favor ever owed.

The results were splendid! We heard from Apostolics with life experiences ranging from college freshman to career singles to young marrieds to grandparents from 10 states and a Canadian province. For those who love demographics, 59% of our respondents were male, 41% were female.

One of the beauties of this survey is its emphasis on personal experience. Many respondents apologized for their lack of expertise in certain areas, but that makes it an honest reflection of their lives - even if some answers made us wince. And for all of the questions, boy did we touch some hot buttons! (Just check out the ultra-fine definitions under "Best Quiz Team of the Decade.")

Below is the first installment of the answers given. (Another very important fact we learned about surveys was the time needed to compile the answers is enormous.) For the most part, there were no dominant winners, so much as a scattershot of thoughtful answers. Most comments are left unedited, though not all are included.

If nothing else, this will give you an accurate flavor of what’s happening in our readership at the start of another decade.

...contingent on wedding plans, because almost 30% announced the specific year, followed by "the year I got married." (It’s nice to see 30% of our reader’s marriages are happy.) Having said that, the dominant year of the decade was...1999, with twice as many mentions as 1997 and 1998 (which tied for second.)

In this category, the responses were varied and personal—once you get by "the year I got married’s." (Again, for the record, readers were married in 1990, 1997 (multiple), and 1998.)

• My Best Year of This Decade Was…1997. I married my best friend!
• My Best Year of This Decade Was...1992. Why? 1992 was the year I graduated from college, the year I met my later-to-be wife, and the year the nation was still under the presidential leadership of a man with moral character.
• My Best Year of This Decade Was... 1995. I started my own business.
• My Best Year of This Decade Was…1998. It was a year to grow in God. With graduate school finished, ministry had just begun.
• My Best Year of This Decade Was… 1999. I did a lot of growing both spiritually and mentally. Plus, I had a blast. 1999 was awesome.
• My Best Year of This Decade Was...1998. The year God gave me my little boy.
• My Best Year of This Decade Was…1994. I wasn't working, so I had plenty of time for prayer and time with the quizzers. I truly operated that year in the spirit most of the time. It was the year I had all the "bad" kids for quizzing and we saw tremendous growth in them, lots of prayer meetings, sharing, etc. Also, it was our first trophy year...
• My Best Year of This Decade Was...- the last one because I lived to see it, and lived through it!! REALLY! (and it was "right next" to the new millenium!!)
• My Best Year of This Decade Was...1999 - I'll have to take the start of our new pastorate, the conception of our first child, living in Moscow, and visiting Egypt over 1996, our wedding year.
• My Best Year of This Decade Was. - 1999. My first grandchild
• My Best Year of This Decade Was…1997- The year after I graduated when I did nothing! It was relaxing.

Best Vacation

Where do Apostolics go to unwind? Everywhere! The answers were more diverse than we imagined. Besides the usual American spots (Hilton Head Island) and cruises (Caribbean), there were honeymoons (Branson, MO; Kauai, Hawaii;), honeymoons with advice (St. John, US Virgin Islands, 1998. If you have the chance and can handle it financially, rent a villa on this island; very cool.), and just fun trips with family and friends.

• Huntsville, AL. A nice place made even more special by great friends we left behind when we moved.
• Definitely Paris!!!! That was one of the best experiences of my life.
• Marco Island, Florida. We spent Christmas there with my dad. First time we'd ever done anything like that. We split the cost with my dad and were able to stay at a condo on the beach. :-)
• Vacations in 1995! Fall - Egypt; Spring - Italy.
• Hilton Head, South Carolina, after Gen. Conference 1998, - a first with all family members and their spouses!!
• Egypt Feb. of 1999, The Great Pyramids, the Red Sea, boat cruise on the Nile, The Valley of the Kings, it was tops!
• I took a trip to Europe in the early 90s. I went by myself and took the Eurail. I had a chance to go to several countries and visit the missionaries.
• (Tie) Washington, D.C. (June 1997) and Paris, France (November, 1998)
• My cousin's wedding when my family toured through Michigan and Canada.
• Paris and Switzerland. After a month apart due to business, it was great to reunite with my wife in Paris. Then we found a secluded hotel on a lake and camped out in Switzerland for a week, handily forgetting we were supposed to go on to Germany. Still haven’t visited Germany.

The world is full of "homers." When a person didn’t know what team to vote for, or just couldn’t allow themselves to look elsewhere, they voted with their hearts (i.e. the home team) instead of with their heads (i.e. teams with numerous successful years). There’s nothing wrong with that. Still, we removed those responses (thanks for voting though).

Most voters had involved, well-reasoned answers, with most choosing established winners, though at least one respondent refused to define "Best" as "Winningest." It was a good point.

Going on raw votes, the powerhouse teams of Herrin, Illinois (1990), Cincinnati, Ohio and Evansville, Indiana received the most votes. But were they the Best or just the Winningest?

• Best Quiz Team of the Decade Herrin, IL-1990. They possessed, at the time, unity, spirituality, knowledge of the material (all five quizzers knew everything), experience, great interruptions, speed, as well as excellent contesting, and did exceptionally well all year, including winning the BQE and several other really big tournaments.
• Best Quiz Teams of the Decade

1. Cincinnati, OH. Back-to-back championships and several young people entering the ministry are evidence of a well-rounded quizzing ministry.
2. Evansville, IN A growing ministry that may be the next great quizzing dynasty.
3. Liberty, MO They have enough teams to have Liberty declared a district.

• Best Quiz Team of the Decade Evansville, IN. Hands down. Great quizzers. Great attitudes. Great coaches. Great tournament every year.
• Best Quiz Team of the Decade Dequincy, LA 1999
• Best Quiz Team of the Decade Now I should "get this one," but.....so many!!! ....... - Cincinnati, Ohio (4 NABQT wins) followed by Evansville, Indiana perhaps ??
• Best Quiz Team of the Decade Evansville, IN - Always competitive in regular season. Probably won the most tourneys, throw in both a 1st and 2nd place finish at NABQT's and you have a great team!
• Best Quiz Team of the Decade: Herrin 1990. 4.5 quizzers deep who had John down (18 of 21 chapters in the Good Old Days); great speed and excellent spirits.
• Best Quiz team of the decade: My vote goes to the team from my home church: Lovingway UPC in Denver, Colorado. My church has had a consistent quiz team for over 2 decades. That's a lot of lives touched by the memorization of God's word. Although the highest any of our teams has placed nationally is 7th (in 1998), the people who've been a part of those teams have gone on to be productive, Christian adults. And I know that's happening all over America, as well. The best quiz team is the one anyone is involved with.
• Best Quiz Team of the Decade Recognizing the emphasis on "team," as opposed to superstar quizzer, and recognizing that the decade began with '91 and will end with '00, and recognizing that quizzing has changed even over the last ten years, such that measuring teams against one another is like comparing apples to oranges, also, however, recognizing that the best teams from one era would remain among the best in another era, and, finally, recognizing that the best teams don't always win Nationals, here's my chronological list of possible choices ...

• (Bridgeton, MO '89-90, just missed the decade)
• Stittsville, ON '91
• Onawa, IA '92-93
• Monroe, LA '93
• Evansville, IN '94
• Arroyo Grande, CA '95
• Jayess, MS '95
• Clifton, TX '95
• Cincinnati, OH '96
• Marks, MS '96
• Orange, TX '96
• Toledo, OH '97
• Leesville, LA '97
• Kokomo, IN '98
• Dequincy, LA '99
• Lake Houston, TX '99
• and this year's odds-on favorites ...
• Fresno, CA '00
• Dequincy, LA '00

Throw this list of teams into a tournament 10 times over, all things being equal, and I don't think you'd have the same champ twice.

The oddest consistency in all of our categories - almost everyone who answered assumed everyone else would instantly know their choice for Best Song. The reality is, almost no one put what group or context this song was sung! Oh well! Thus, with little attribution, the answers:

• Mary did you know?
• Salt Pillar
• Order My Steps
• Where there is Faith.
• I Make this A Promise by Clay Crosse. That song is my prayer to God.
• For Future Generations by 4 Him.
• Praise You because of its meaning and tune.
• Phil Keaggy's version of When Will I Ever Learn to Live in God. (1993)
• I Hasten To the Cross
• Welcome, Holy Spirit
• People Get Ready by Crystal Lewis. It is just an awesome song.

This is our "Broad-enough-to-Drive-A-Dump-Truck-Though" category. Still, the clear winner in our Apostolic Singer category is the First Lady of Southern Song—Mickey Mangun. Just as dominant in the Songwriter category was Mark Condon.

After that, many worthy and talented people were named. So talented, in fact, that they crossed over into several categories. Those named included: Tim Pedigo, Carroll McGruder, Geron Davis and DeDe Cooley.

Finally, one respondent had to ask... "Is a choir ok? If so, the Louisiana All State youth choir. I have every CD they have out and I have practically worn them out."

• Apostolic Singer of the Decade Mickey Mangun. Her powerful, anointed voice ushers in the presence of the Lord every time she sings. Sis. Mickey's goal is not to entertain or impress, but to catalyze worship. Whether ministering through song to politicians at the White House, or to mentally challenged adults at rehabilitation centers in Alexandria, Louisiana, her love and ministry of music is authentic and stirring. She grasps and embodies the true meaning of worship through music.
• Best Apostolic Musician/Singer/Songwriter of the Decade Micky Mangun. I only wish I had her lungs!
• Best Apostolic Musician/Singer/Songwriter of the Decade Mickey Mangun. Such a wonderful voice, and even a more beautiful spirit.

• Apostolic Songwriter of the Decade Mark Condon (for "Order My Steps;" easily one of the most substantive choir songs of those that have been widely performed in recent years).

Hmm. This was one of our least answered categories. So, either our readers don’t attend concerts, don’t remember the concerts they’ve attended or just like to buy CDs, the results were eclectic, even if the overall responses were underwhleming.

• Best Gospel Concert of the Decade John P Kee
• Best Gospel Concert of the Decade Avalon, Crystal Lewis
• Best Gospel Concert of the Decade: Phil Keaggy (with band!), Masonic Auditorium, Toledo, Ohio (1996)
• Best Gospel Concert of the Decade Steven Curtis Chapman ("Great Adventure" Tour - 1993)
• Best Gospel Concert of the Decade DC Talk/Audio Adrenaline at Red Rocks, Colorado.

With the explosion of traveling theatre companies, everyone seems to have attended at least one such extravaganza as, judging from the responses, musicals lit up our lives. Though one snarled, "I do not like musicals - how often do YOU ever break into song to explain that you are going to visit a friend?"

"The Phantom of the Opera, without a doubt."

• "A Christmas Carol in the Fox Theatre, St. Louis."
• "Fiddler on the Roof - Granted, it didn't come out this decade, but I saw it this decade, and it was my favorite. If you’re talking of new ones this decade, then Beauty and the Beast is a close second."
• "Les Miserables - London; The music is scarily repetitious, but the story always makes me cry."
• "Sound of Music--This is my favorite musical of all time."
• Rent
• Hamlet
• Love's Labour Lost (Shakespeare)

Perhaps our favorite category was the one respondents created. "Other" allows the writer to cover a category we did not. Naturally, this ranged from the sweet to the sticky to the sublime.

Best Activities There are three:

1. Extracurricular activity: I was partially involved in starting the MK (Missionary Kids) Association.
2. Work: I began working as a family nurse practitioner and counselor-in-training.
3. School: I completed two Master's degrees and the work for a third.

Best Friend My wife

Best "Other" of the Decade was surviving. I went through some things in the 90s that I never thought I'd have to go through in such a short span. Within a few years, I got married, lost my father and mother, received my Master’s degree, bought a house, had pneumonia and had a baby. Through it all, God's mercy and goodness never failed.

Wife of the Decade Dana - She's absolutely wonderful in every way.

Best new website is (obviously!) Ninety-and-nine. (Editor’s Note: And to think how the votes would have gone if we actually

Best "Other" of the Decade Chips Ahoy cookies. Can you believe that a mass produced chocolate chip cookie such as these can still taste this great?! Wow.

Best Sports Story of the Decade The rise of the St. Louis Rams in 1999-2000

Best Quiz Coach (a listing again) Mike Dutton, Gary Powers, Norman Paslay/Susan Heimkreiter, Winfred Statum, Gerald Goodine

© ninetyandnine.com, 2000

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Next Week! What’s the best word for Today’s Youth? What are the best books of the decade? Who and what defined the 1990s? What General Conferences made the deepest impression? If you had a quote for the last decade, would it be the same as our respondents? All this and more!

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