May 27, 2000 (David W. Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061-0368, fbns@wayoflife.org) -- From time to time I receive a suggestion like the following:

"Bro. Cloud, May I make a suggestion? I have been receiving your news service via e-mail now for a couple of years. At the beginning of each e-mail you have a ‘disclaimer’ of sorts explaining what the FBIS is, what we can do with it, etc. I always have to scroll past this to get to the message itself. And then the beginning of the message is again shrouded with the FBIS address on the first line. Since everybody who gets your service knows why they are getting it, why not paste these items at the end of the message as a footer instead of a header."

REPLY FROM BRO. CLOUD

That is a reasonable suggestion and when I first started the service I tried it. I found, though, that it was easier for people to cut the information paragraph off if it was at the end of the report. By the way, it is not a disclaimer; it is information. While the information headers mean nothing to the general readers of the material and, in fact, are something of a bother; they are extremely important to this ministry and I want to keep them displayed as prominently as possible. Yes, it is true that those who subscribe to the service know that information, but the thousands of people who receive the articles second hand do not. Let me try to explain this situation from my perspective. People tend to want to use material like mine for free and even distribute it and reprint it without the contact information. I have frequently found my articles being distributed by e-mail and by print without so much as my name on it. I can’t stop that completely but I want to make it as difficult as possible for that to happen. If the material is distributed without any contact information people have no way to communicate with us for further assistance, and I have no way to receive any income from it to help with the many expenses involved with carrying on this ministry. I have found that it is very difficult to try to fund a ministry that uses e-mail or the Internet, because people want everything that comes that way to be free, regardless of how much it costs to produce. Most churches won’t support a ministry like the Fundamental Baptist Information Service or the Way of Life web site (even though they will use material), and even the subscribers themselves usually don’t help. Less than 5% of those who subscribe to the e-mail service give even a token gift, even though they are told up front that it not a free service and that there are many expenses involved. Most subscribers simply ignore the quarterly offerings. I do everything I can, therefore, to use the service also to advertise our magazine and books so I can provide some income for the ministry that way.