Changing Seasons at Focus on the Family

Hearing the news that James Dobson is retiring from being the primary voice on Focus on the Family radio broadcast leaves me with mixed emotions.

• During my childhood his program was a comforting encouragement in our home. My parents found good tips on how to raise two boys in a loving environment. I am very appreciative of those years and several of his books. The program was a ministry.
  
  
• During my youth I listened to the radio broadcast as it became part of the grid for my understanding of Christian culture in the bigger, scarier world. The program became a message.
  
  
• During my first year in full-time ministry I listened to the messages around the opening stanzas of Promise Keepers and their masculinity chorus. The program became a movement, almost nearly an army.

• As I became a parent myself I listened to the messages on parenting again, but now they seemed to be mixed with a worldview that was couched in fear. I turned the radio down and stopped reading the magazines. The program became its own brand of media.

• In the last decade I frequently found myself conflicted with Focus on the Family as politics seemed to take the central stage at the ministry. To me, what they stood for and how they flexed their muscles overshadowed who they were supposed to be following. The program became a machine.

It is the end of an era (see news item below) for Focus on the Family as Dr. Dobson steps aside from the microphone. Many will miss his wise voice and passionate stands. Me, I’ve been missing him for years.

The Christian Post

Influential conservative leader James Dobson is planning to go off the air, his ministry reported Friday.

In an announcement, Focus on the Family announced Dobson’s intention to remove himself as the primary radio voice of his daily radio broadcast at the end of February but made clear that the move was not prompted by health concerns.

Dobson remains "a man of health and vigor," Focus on the Family president and CEO Jim Daly reported. "The Bible tells us that to everything there is a season – and Dr. Dobson's season at Focus on the Family has been remarkable," Daly added.

Dobson, who founded Focus on the Family, has been with the ministry’s radio program since it began airing in 1977, providing daily encouragement and advice to families worldwide and speaking out on moral issues.

The 73-year-old conservative leader resigned as president of the prominent organization in 2003 and later as chairman in February of this year as part of a plan to pass on the leadership to the next generation.

"One of the common errors of founder-presidents is to hold to the reins of leadership too long, thereby preventing the next generation from being prepared for executive authority," Dobson said in a statement earlier this year.