Facebook Frustrations

Facebook is a marvelous tool to connect with people and minister to them. It’s also a source of occasional frustration and conflict. Aside from increased censorship by social media platforms, you risk offending others no matter how you speak the truth in love. One time a woman unfriended me after I advised her not to sow discord amongst my other friends (Proverbs 6:19) regarding another minister we had differing opinions.

I’ve also had preachers promote their ministries and make fundraising appeals on my Facebook pages despite asking them to stop. That prompted me to change my account settings. Friends can only write comments in response to my articles and praise reports. Still, people will post stuff irrelevant to my writings. Usually, I remove these posts but have unfriended individuals who won’t respect my boundaries. In recent years, I’ve blocked (but not unfriended) many people on Messenger. With close to 5,000 friends from all over the world, I don’t have time to chat with everyone.

Another thing that has irritated me is Facebook Groups. Until a couple of years ago, friends were able to add me to these groups without my permission. A few of them took offense when I asked them to stop. One minister from India I met at a conference in South Carolina added me to two groups despite my sending two previous emails asking him not to do that. This time I emailed him two reminders: first privately but then posted a comment directly on the group page since he wasn’t checking his inbox. This minister unfriended me.

A few days before that, a Canadian pastor who friended me (but I never met in person) added me to a Facebook group promoting him and his wife. After immediately leaving that group, I sent an email asking him not to add me to any groups. This minister responded by blocking me. That’s a bit extreme. All I did was make a simple request.

I pray all my brothers and sisters in Christ grow up and pursue His purposes instead of their agenda. We are all called to reach the world but not necessarily associate and work with everybody who calls themselves a Christian. As Mike Murdock says, “Your Assignment is not to everybody, but to somebody.”

"For I determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified." - 1 Corinthians 2:2

"Next!"

Thirty years ago, I was involved in a multi-level marketing company called Nu Skin. Although it didn’t prosper me financially as I hoped, it was a valuable learning experience. Many recruiting tips I learned in MLM were later applied in evangelism outreaches. One of which was not taking it personally when someone rejects what is offered to them.

One Nu Skin distributor taught this analogy. Let’s suppose you excitedly call your neighbor saying, “Jim, I found gold buried in my backyard! Get a shovel and bucket and get all you want!”

“Well, I’m a little busy right now.”

“Didn’t you hear me, Jim? There’s gold in my backyard! Get a shovel and bucket and get all you want!”

“Well, I really don’t have a shovel and bucket.”

“Darn it, Jim! Just go BUY a shovel and bucket!”

“Do you know how much shovels and buckets cost?”

The distributor concluded the analogy by advising, “Folks, will you please learn to do this?” He then waved his arm like moving something out of the way and declared, “Next!” Negative people always look for reasons to reject things that appear too good to be true. As I heard other Nu Skin distributors point out, “Some will…some won’t…so what? Next!”

That is certainly true with the gospel. Not everyone you approach will be receptive to walking on streets of gold for eternity. Even when someone refuses a tract from me, I can still plant a seed in their heart by saying, “Jesus loves you.” Then I move on to the next person the Lord leads me to.

There’s an old saying, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” As much as God doesn’t want anyone to perish, we cannot allow ourselves to grow despondent when individuals reject Jesus. It’s their decision.

“He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.” - Luke 10:16

From Nu Skin to the New Birth

At the beginning of 1990, I became dissatisfied with life. At 26 I had mounting debts from pursuing a music career and lost my enthusiasm working as a nightclub disc jockey. Around this time, a radio program I listened to called “Musical Starstreams” started running ads about a business opportunity. Forest (the show’s host) talked about a way one could earn a large income and have the time to enjoy it. Soon I received a video in the mail about a network marketing company called Nu Skin.

After watching the video, I was intrigued enough to call Forest and find out why he was involved with a company that manufactured personal care products. Forest explained he wanted to make enough money to buy radio stations and air new age music full-time. Since Nu Skin was experiencing exponential growth, I decided to take advantage of this “opportunity of a lifetime.” I sold all my recording equipment to have extra money for purchasing product and sales aids. My goal was to build a residual income, pay off all my debts, and then resume my music career.

One of the first things I learned in network marketing was how to prospect through my “circle of influence” list. I quickly realized a need to associate with people serious about progressing in life. Most of my friends then were musicians or barflies. None of them wanted to go into business with me. Some of them tried talking me out of doing Nu Skin. 

Consequently I had to search for prospects in the cold market. That was done with newspaper ads and leaving business cards in public places encouraging people to call my voice mail number to hear a recorded message. Those wanting more information about my business were sent the same video I had watched. The process of mailing out videos with prepaid return envelopes was very costly. It resulted in me signing up only two distributors.

So I tried inviting people to my home for interviews. This cut down on the postage expenses and filtered out individuals who were just curious. Half of the people that scheduled interviews didn’t show up. None of the others signed up with me as a Nu Skin distributor. Despite my lack of success in recruiting, I was getting outside my comfort zone and developing better people skills.

To help me maintain a positive attitude, I started attending motivational seminars and listening to self-help tapes. From which I kept hearing how important it is to have your priorities in order. To be a successful person in life, you must put your spiritual goals first, next your family, and then your business. Every time I heard the “spiritual” part, thoughts crossed my mind about going back to church. For a while I was reluctant to do so. The traditional Lutheran church I went to as a child gave me wrong perceptions of Christianity.

Nevertheless, one Nu Skin executive I grew to admire was a former pastor who used an interesting illustration. Jesus put twelve men on His frontline that resulted in Him capturing a large percentage of the world’s marketshare. It was another seed planted that eventually resulted in my salvation on March 19, 1991. For another year, I persisted with Nu Skin despite making very little money plus my sponsor switched to a different MLM company. 

Then in February 1992, I had a dream in which I was in Utah wanting to visit Nu Skin’s corporate headquarters. When I called directory assistance, I heard a recorded message that gave out the number but then said, “Please do not call this number!” When I decided to go ahead and call the number, a glass plate suddenly covered the telephone buttons. This prevented me from making the call. After waking up I prayed, “Lord, if you are telling me to get out of Nu Skin, then please give me a confirmation on this.”  

The next night at church, my pastor had a word of knowledge saying, “Someone here is involved in multilevel marketing...you need to get out of it and find a regular job.” For the next four years I worked at a variety of places until the Lord called me to full-time ministry.

I don’t regret my time in Nu Skin. The experience taught me things that later helped me be successful with evangelism (like isolating objections when people oppose the gospel). Since then I’ve been approached with several other MLM opportunities but remained focused on promoting the most important product available: eternal life.

“but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.” - Matthew 6:20

An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,

I’m a traveling missionary who’s been using Facebook now for over ten years. It’s a marvelous tool to help me reconnect with old friends, meet new people and minister to them. However, there are a couple of things I don’t like about your social media site. They are serious enough to me where I’ve considered leaving Facebook completely.

One of them is being forced to use Messenger if I want to send a private message through my smartphone. It often results in other Facebook friends trying to start up chat sessions with me. I liked it better when my chat room could be kept off and not let everyone know I’m online. I’ve had to use the “block messages” function with individuals who persist in initiating conversations with me. I don’t want to be rude but maintain boundaries and limit distractions. Some of my friends won’t even use Messenger because of privacy concerns. 

Another intrusive feature I loathe even more is Facebook groups. Since 2010, friends have been able to add me to these groups without my permission (yesterday I was added to three of them without being asked). This has been a recurring annoyance. Being added to groups results in extra emails sent to my inbox that I don’t care to read. Not only that, my membership to these groups are automatically made public even if I have no interest in them. It’s especially annoying when I have to remove my name again from a group after being added a second time. This can happen if I leave a group using my smartphone. I don’t have the option of preventing my name from being added again like from my laptop.

Yesterday, a fellow minister sent me an article explaining your desire to use Facebook groups to build “meaningful communities” and “bring the world closer together.” Regardless of your intentions, that hasn’t changed my aversion toward groups. Unless changes are made and people are allowed to be invited first (like with Fan pages), I will not be part of any Facebook group.

In the past, I made a few exceptions. In 2015, I had a new song aired on Dr. Demento’s radio show and briefly joined his Facebook group to connect with listeners interested in my music. The problem is when some people see you’re part of one group, that gives them ideas to add you to other groups.

In closing, I want to commend you and your wife Priscilla for your desire to give most of your wealth to charity  However, I must remind you that we will all pass away from this life to the next. Good works will not buy your way into heaven. I pray you will seek His Face so your name will be jotted into His Book (the book of life). That comes from entering into a relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Hopefully, you will then recognize the greatest mission God wants us involved in...preaching the gospel throughout the world so fewer people will spend eternity in hell.

“that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” - Romans 10:9

Show Me Your Face

How would you respond if a new neighbor knocked on your door wanting to meet you but disguised himself with a mask or a hood? You would probably think that person is being weird or has something to hide. That same principle is true when connecting with people on the Internet.

Occasionally I receive Facebook friend requests from individuals that don’t have photos of themselves in their profiles. Usually, I’ll accept such requests if I already know the person. Some folks are not computer savvy and may not have photos readily available to post online. But if I don’t know the person, then I’m not obligated to accept their friend request.

One time I received a friend request from an evangelist I never heard of who had a lion’s face for his Facebook profile photo. I searched through his photo albums but couldn’t find a single picture of this man. Immediately I thought of the Don Potter song, “Show Me Your Face.” While that song is technically about seeking the Lord, I have come to the realization some Christians need to stop being so shy. Psalm 139:14 says we are “fearfully and wonderfully made.” Children of God should not be ashamed to show their faces in public.

Some people like to be creative and use artwork for their Facebook profile picture. But if you are looking to expand your circle of influence, it’s only common courtesy to have photos of yourself available for the public to see. A few individuals have told me they don’t like using email because it seems so impersonal. Even the Bible mentions the value of face-to-face communication. 2 John 12 says, “Having many things to write to you, I did not wish to do so with paper and ink; but I hope to come to you and speak face to face, that our joy may be full.”

I’m always open to meeting new people online. But if you are serious about knowing me, don’t hide your profile. Show me your face!

“So the LORD spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” - Exodus 33:11

Divine Connections Through David

Unable to fall asleep last Tuesday night, I stayed up until 4 a.m. doing various things on the Internet. One of them was searching for a man who was my best friend in high school. David Rask and I first met during an eighth grade art class at Central Junior High School in Moorhead, Minnesota. One of our assignments was to sketch a portrait of another classmate. David and I chose to draw each other. Although I wasn’t fond of how I looked, David got an “A” for his drawing of me. Eventually, we started hanging out together.

In the winter of 1980, David invited me to a Bible camp we went to along with other people from the Baptist church he attended. At one of the services during this weekend outing, a three-piece Christian band told a powerful story in between songs. It was about a bridge that spanned across a large river. Most of the time the bridge was in an “up” position allowing ships to pass through. The bridge was lowered whenever a train needed to cross over it. One day the bridge operator looked off into the distance and saw a passenger train coming. To his horror, he also noticed his son playing underneath the gears of the bridge! The train would go crashing into the river unless the bridge was lowered in time. Either the many people on this train or his son would have to die. The bridge operator decided to lower the bridge. As the train sped safely across the river, none of the passengers aboard were aware of the tiny little body crushed underneath them. 

The singer telling this story then pointed out this is what God did for us when He sacrificed His Son to bridge the gap between eternal life and us. Hearing this train story made me feel very uncomfortable. The concept of sacrificial love was so foreign to me for I was very self-centered then. Nevertheless, it was the first time I truly heard the gospel.

A few months later, David introduced me to a man he worked with at McDonald’s. Bill Miller was a Concordia College student who was also involved with a Christian organization called Young Life. The following summer, Bill invited me to a week-long camp called the Castaway Club where I first asked Jesus into my heart. For the next few weeks, I attended a Bible study at Bill’s place but soon backslid after he and his wife moved away. (It would be another ten years before I committed my life to the Lord for good.)

It was also through David I first heard about the Peters Brothers, two Minnesota preachers who held seminars exposing the evils associated with secular rock music. Although I didn't agree with many of the claims made by Dan and Steve Peters, God used them to plant additional seeds in my heart.

Meanwhile, David got into personal troubles and ended up joining the Marines without finishing his senior year in high school. Following a two-year hitch, David returned to Moorhead. We went to a few parties together but gradually drifted apart. Before long I enlisted in the military and later moved to Minneapolis but occasionally returned to the Fargo-Moorhead area to visit family and friends. 

The last time I recall seeing David was in December 1988 when I came home for Christmas. By this time David had married a woman named Kim. The three of us got together one night at their apartment in Fargo.

In recent years I attempted to find David on Facebook without success. It wasn't until after searching through other websites I discovered what happened to my old friend. In 2002, David was arrested and charged with a misdemeanor (the above mug shot was the only photo I could find of him). Three years later, David died in a fishing accident. He was 41 years old and had been divorced from his wife.

I hope David Rask was in right standing with the Lord at the time of his death. If so, I look forward to seeing David in heaven and thanking him for connecting me with people God used to get the gospel to me. In the meantime, I will keep on fulfilling the Great Commission. Our time on earth is short compared to eternity.

“Whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away.” - James 4:14