Editor's Note: This feature on Jesus Daily is related to a Q&A with the founder of the Facebook page, Dr. Aaron Tabor. Read it here: Christian Doctor Behind Facebook's Most Popular Religious Page Divides His Life Between 'Jesus and Drugs'

The uber popular Jesus Daily Facebook page has more than 27 million "likes" and attracts thousands of new followers from around the world every day. What's the magic behind its growth? One could point to the viral posts of videos of "adorable" babies and pets, personal affirmations, and Bible quotes (sometimes accompanied by haunting images of Robert Powell à la 1977's Jesus of Nazareth). But, according to the doctor who founded Facebook's most-engaged religious page, its ballooning growth and global reach essentially come down to good old fashioned mathematics, specifically probability and statistics.

"A lot of those techniques I learned in the medical research field, I simply applied to the Jesus Daily page, in terms of, for example, testing different times of day of posting Christ facing this way versus that way, etcetera and on and on. I treated the page as I would a medical clinical trial. I think what we learned from that has really been priceless in terms of keeping our engagement high in order to continue to spread the Gospel," said Dr. Aaron Tabor.

Tabor is the 44-year-old gene therapy researcher who launched Jesus Daily on April 7, 2009, as a Facebook page (it now has a website, too). The page proved so popular, that for more than an entire year (2011-2012) it remained, unrivaled, Facebook's most-active page, with fans commenting, liking, and posting to the page at a rate higher than fans of other pages. Nowadays, though, the title of most-active or most-talked about Facebook page is often claimed by athletes (Cristiano Ronaldo), TV shows ("America's Funniest Home Videos"), and public figures (Mario Teguh), according to Fan Page List. Fan Page List provides data on official Facebook fan pages and Twitter accounts of popular brands, celebrities, TV shows, and so forth.

"Most of the reporting services that reported on the most-engaged pages, I think they got tired of saying that 'Jesus was number one' each week," Tabor told The Christian Post when asked about other accomplishments for Jesus Daily. "They were coming up with ridiculous headlines, like, 'Justin Bieber edges out Lady Gaga for position number 3 this week.'

"That sounded like a horse race," he added after a chuckle. "So, mysteriously, all of those reports kind of disappeared along the same time."

Despite not getting much press since 2012, Jesus Daily still reigns as Facebook's most popular page in the Church/Religious Organization category. According to PageData and Trackalytics, online tools that provide various data for Facebook pages and other social networks, Joel Osteen Ministries is the second most-liked Church/Religious Organization page, though by a sizable margin.

"I'm really appreciative to Facebook, you know, they've created the largest Roman Road in human history, that as the early Christians used those roads to carry the Gospel to very far parts of the earth, we're really doing that now today but just doing it electronically on this wonderful Roman Road called Facebook," said Tabor.

As that "Roman Road" expands, Tabor plans on being there, every step of the way.

"So when Facebook and along with their other technology partners, gives another 4.4 billion people Internet access, along with broadband phones, we intend to be right there at the forefront spreading the Gospel," he added.

In the meantime, Tabor has been focused on promoting his recently-published daily devotional book, entitled Jesus Daily: 365 Interactive Devotions, and Jesusdaily.com, launched over the summer of 2014.

Jesusdaily.com informs visitors that they "can learn how to accept Jesus Christ as (their) Savior, read daily devotionals, learn about God, grow in (their) Faith, read Bible verses, and share the Gospel with friends!" For visitors who are moved — presumably by the "cute," "humorous" or this-is-a-miracle content (as there are no visible presentations of the Gospel) — to "Accept Jesus Now," there is a red button at the top right of the website which they can click on.

Upon clicking, visitors are taken to a sinner's prayer of sorts posted on the Jesus Daily Facebook page, that is dated Jan. 13, 2013. As of Jan. 1, 2015, the prayer, which begins "Dear Jesus, I am so sorry for the bad things I have done," has been "liked" by more than 2.4 million people and shared nearly 136,000 times. Readers are instructed to: "Write 'Amen' if you asked Jesus to save you today! Like to help your unsaved family and friends accept Jesus." Most of the 821,958 comments seem to be comprised of simply "Amen." If the responses are interpreted as genuine responses to the invitation to salvation, then the Jesus Daily website and Facebook fan page would be responsible for converting millions of souls to Jesus Christ.

While Jesusdaily.com is driven mostly by cutesy, positive, and heart-warming video posts — and features a trademarked God's Little Helpers vertical focused on pets, Tabor's 400-page moderately-priced hardcover devotional book does go a little bit deeper. However, it doesn't stray too far from the formula: the end-goal of each day's entry, in many cases, seems to be to drive engagement to the Jesus Daily Facebook page and website.

Jesus Daily: 365 Interactive Devotions encourages readers to "do more" by following prompts, the "daily step mission" presented at the end of each day's reading. Most of these prompts, labeled "CONNECT," are, according to the book's introduction, "short Web missions that (take) only seconds of your time." And if readers "love Jesus enough to complete all 365 interactive devotions and each daily Web mission (they) will be closer to God than ever before" — so promises Tabor in the introduction. In addition to Web missions, readers are prompted to call, video conference, or go for a walk with a family member, co-worker, or friend for the purpose of encouragement, evangelism, prayer, etc. In some rare cases, readers are encouraged to log off and fast from the digital domain.

Tabor explained that he wanted to design a devotional book that encourages readers to be "doers for Christ versus thinkers of Christ," unlike the numerous devotional books he said he has encountered. "Right now, unfortunately, most devotionals are just about reading and thinking. There's not a lot of doing," he said.

"That's why I included that daily step mission which in 30-60 seconds per day you can develop a habit over the course of a year of actually going and spreading the Gospel through loving others as Jesus loved them," Tabor explained. "I think once people do that for a year, it's not something that you can just quit cold turkey on. Imagine doing something for Jesus with an intent and purpose every single day for 365 days where you're reaching out and loving a neighbor or spreading the Gospel. That's not just something you're gonna be able to spiritually or psychologically cease and feel good about yourself as a Christian. That is the number one hope of the devotional, that it energizes Christians to, as Christ said, to go and do and spread (the Good News)."

The doctor has learned over the years curating Jesus Daily on Facebook that people will do what you ask them to — whether it is to "click," "like," "share," or "leave a comment."

As he explained, "That same psychology is brought over into the book, where we ask them to specifically do something every day. It's a very specific little Web mission that they can do and really develop that daily habit of doing."

In this video excerpt, Tabor illustrates how quickly Facebook users engage with a post on Jesus Daily:

The devotional book not withstanding, one might be tempted to dismiss the Jesus Daily brand as shallow — after all, how profound of a spiritual experience can one have by watching cat videos, or by typing "...YES if you will open the door to Jesus in 2015?"

Upon closer look, however, the Jesus Daily Facebook page possibly penetrates countries around the world at a rate that not even the likes of Billy Graham, Luis Palau, or Benny Hinn have reached, despite these evangelists having traversed the globe for decades spreading the Good News of God's kingdom.

Facebook reports that as of Sept. 30, 2014, there were 864 million daily (and 1.35 billion monthly) active users on average using the social network, with approximately 82.2 percent of daily active users located outside of the United States and Canada. Jesus Daily has more than 91,000 followers in Saudi Arabia and nearly 110,000 in Pakistan, two countries listed on watchdog Open Doors' World Watch List of countries that persecute or oppress Christians. There were about 2.3 million Jesus Daily Facebook fans living in countries whose data were not publicly disclosed, according to social media analytics service Social Bakers.

The Jesus Daily Facebook page's largest fan bases, however, were in the United States (21.8 percent) and the Philippines (21.6 percent), the later viewed by Tabor as being "on fire for God."

"About half the country is on Facebook, and about one out of every six people in the Philippines on Facebook are a fan of Jesus Daily. There's no one in the Philippines that doesn't have a friend that is a member of Jesus Daily. Through the liking, commenting, and sharing, we're pushing the Gospel out to essentially all of the Facebook-connected world of the Philippines," said Tabor.

When asked by CP how evangelistic the Jesus Daily Facebook was and whether moderators dialogued very much with seekers, atheists or people with serious questions, Tabor stated that there were "literally millions of messages" sent via email from people wanting to know more about Jesus, and ranging from "claiming that they are going to commit suicide, to women asking for breast cancer prayer, to men and women desiring prayer for their marriage to be restored." Those emails, he said, were being handled by Cru (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ) volunteers. A Cru staff member informed CP that an organization "not necessarily" affiliated with Cru and located in Canada has been helping to answer Jesus Daily Facebook emails.

Tabor explained, when speaking on the popularity of Jesus Daily, that "people like that they can have a personal relationship with God and the mind-blowing fact that God came in flesh to express his love for us and that Christ is here when he said come unto me ye who are weary and heavy laden and I will give you rest.

"Fans (of the Jesus Daily Facebook page) can be reminded on a daily basis that, hey, if you have health problems, if you have financial problems, if you have relationship problems, if you need guidance for your life and career, that Christ promise to be there for us to help us. That's a big reason the page is popular — we're simply reminding people that that's what Christ said and that we can ask him for the guidance and for that comfort and receive it," he added.

Tabor, described by the aforementioned Cru staff member and "good friend," Marilyn Adamson, as "very very smart" and "an amazing person...in his heart for the Lord," told CP that he plans to soon launch an "online church." Adamson, director of Cru website Everystudent.com, also developed for Tabor's Jesus Daily community free discipleship tools in the format of email teachings made available on Jesusdaily.org. Tabor said he was "excited" about both ventures and that he hoped "to be able to encourage people and keep them discipled and eventually start training people to be home pastors and teachers as well in many areas of the world where it's dangerous to openly operate a church or too expensive to build one."

The online church, Tabor emphasized, was not "designed to replace the local church." He explained, "I think when the Bible says do not forsake the assembling of yourselves together, there's something real and human that God designed us to have that fellowship together."

But, he added, "We see an ongoing need for people who are home-bound or people that are taking care of loved the ones that are home-bound or people with their schedules that they may want to get their church service in on Tuesday night.

"And this is just an online video platform where people through any device in the world, as long as they have Internet access, would be able to tune in on their own time frame, in addition to going to their own local church, and learn from some of the best teachers and preachers in the world."

The discipleship tool, titled "Super Grow Pack," is the 7-part email series developed by Cru's Adamson that presents teachings meant to inform believers in their new-found Christian faith. For example, part one of the "Super Grow Pack" series discusses, while referencing several Bible passages, forgiveness and God's grace, or justification and its benefits.

"Aaron and I were talking about could there be a way to help those people grow further in their relationship with God," Adamson told CP. "So I wrote an email series which he's offering on the Jesus Daily page just to help believers grow. It's free, nobody pays for it. It's just a series of emails to help them grow."

Adamson informed CP that she was the director for Everystudent.com, a website she started that caters to seekers and curious Christians alike. Its parent organization, Cru, is the interdenominational Christian nonprofit that has a presence on many U.S. college campuses. Adamson acknowledged that Everystudent.com "has a different look and feel than the Jesus Daily Facebook page" and that "they're quite a bit different."

"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.

"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.