Texas Doctor Behind 'Jesus Daily' Facebook Page Says Christ 'Was Master of the Viral Message'; Lauds Network for Creating Longest 'Roman Road'
"But I know Aaron's heart for the Lord and I respect him greatly," she said.
"I think Aaron, his motivation in building that page was to encourage believers in their faith and also to engage with people that have questions about Jesus," Adamson said of the Jesus Daily Facebook page. "Aaron's very, very smart and he's been very diligent and faithful to post things on the page. He's built it to the number of millions that are there because he's worked really hard at it. He's also a doctor, an author...I don't know how the guy does so much. He's an amazing person in his productivity and in his heart for the Lord. It's just impressive how humble he is and how focused he is on wanting people to know Jesus."
As Tabor has shared in previous interviews, he was the sole administrator of the Jesus Daily Facebook page for the first four years or so of its existence. Since then, he has hired a designer and part-time scheduler to help curate content for the page. The fact of needing no real staff to keep Jesus Daily oiled was another testament to the power of Facebook, as far as Tabor was concerned.
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"You can have literally a handful of people creating a global massive presence because of the brilliant viral nature that the Facebook team has created. So we can have a much larger persistent daily global footprint than many ministries that are decades and decades old and have hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars per year. We operate Jesus Daily right now on less than $100,000 per year, yet our daily reach is larger than many ministries that have tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars. And it's because it's so efficient because of the Facebook virality," said Tabor.
On the matter of squeezing revenue from the Jesus Daily brand, Tabor explained that that was his goal with launching Jesusdaily.com. There was also a nonprofit, registered with the IRS as Jesus Daily Inc., and funded by Jesus Daily's for-profit ventures.
"What I found with the nonprofit is that a lot of the big donors who have historically donated millions and millions of dollars to the legacy ministries, kind of your name brand ministries, the legacy ministries who have failed to adopt a social media strategy, they simply don't understand and get social media so it's been very hard to raise funds that way," Tabor told CP.
"So I decided to start raising monies for the ministry by creating some for-profit revenue that could then go to funding the spread of the Gospel and funding some staffing help. So that's been the strategy, and it's working well so far," he added. "It's nice as a ministry that we don't have to depend on people to donate because donations kind of come and go based on the economy or the understanding of the technology or whatever the current pressing world need is. Our goal ultimately is just to be a self-sustaining ministry that does not have to rely on any donors."
IRS Form 990-EZ filed by Jesus Daily Inc. for the 2013 tax year lists $164,897 for total revenue, $69,987 for total expenses, and $411,101 for ending total net assets or fund balances (which include $316,191 in asset/fund balances from the previous calendar year).
In addition to expanding Jesus Daily, Tabor, a Johns Hopkins School of Medicine graduate, developed the "Revival Slim and Beautiful Diet," and was currently "trying to develop gene-based drugs that help people with wound healing" — an occupation he said he found "rewarding."
"It's really neat with gene therapy (for blistering skin diseases in children, diabetic and burn wounds, and anti-aging wrinkle solutions) because you are using God's language of DNA to simply tell these cells how to make the proper, healthy proteins. So it's very intellectually rewarding and spiritually rewarding as well too," said Tabor.
When asked if he had a personal message for the millions who follow Jesus Daily on Facebook, Tabor encouraged people "to be bold for Christ," and mentioned the initial embarrassment he felt sharing the religious page with his professional peers.
"When I first started the page, it was almost embarrassing to share it in front of my intellectual colleagues. But over time, the more I have stood up for Christ and the more I have spread the Gospel, I have had the most amazing amount of blessings the past five and a half years, and connections come to me more than I could have ever imagined or plan," he said, adding that he has also encountered "struggles."
"But through that, you can view through those trials and tribulations, that it's God's direct calling on your life to bring you closer to Him. And when you combine those blessings with the tribulations that bring you closer to Jesus, it's a wonderful life," Tabor added.
