The Dobsons Share a Personal Announcement

March 2009

Dear Friends,

You may have heard that on Friday, February 27, 2009, we announced that I was stepping down as chairman of the Board of Directors for Focus on the Family®. Shirley and I had served in leadership of the ministry for 32 years, which is 78 percent of my entire professional life. You can imagine the nostalgia that swept over us that Friday as we came to our monthly chapel service to announce our resignations. And yes, there were some tears as we took that momentous step.

A statement was released to the media as 950 staff members were gathering at Focus. Fifteen minutes later, The Associated Press broke the story, followed immediately by the Drudge Report. From there, almost every news source in the country carried their version in rapid succession. As I was explaining this highly personal decision to my colleagues, the news of my resignation was already ahead of the fact. Such is the nature of modern-day communication.

For the most part, the media got the story right, but there were exceptions. Some outlets reported that I had retired, which is categorically untrue! I will still be responsible for Focus on the Family’s radio programs, as well as writing my monthly newsletter (including this one) and other ministry duties. I will remain in the office I have occupied since the Focus campus was built in 1993. Jim Daly will continue as president and CEO and will oversee all staff, budgets, operations, facilities and every other dimension of the ministry. So if you don’t like something Focus does, other than what I write or say, please remember that “It’s not my fault!” (Smile)

At the risk of telling you more than you want to know, I am including, below, an edited transcript of my comments made at the chapel service on February 27. It will explain why I have chosen to step down at this time.

JCD: (Applause) Thank you, thank you, everybody. It is such a pleasure to be with you this morning. In times like this you want to be with your friends. Gen. Caruana, thank you so much for what you had to say and for what the Board has written. I should say to all of you that Gen. Pat Caruana has been elected to be the new chairman of Focus on the Family’s Board of Directors. Would you congratulate him on that responsibility? (Applause)

And thank you so much, Dr. Mohler, for your insightful and appropriate comments from the book of Ecclesiastes. I know you prepared this message before my resignation was decided, which verifies again the leadership of the Lord. Shirley and I have been reading The One Year® Bible for some time, and we’ve been moving through the Old and New Testaments together. In that progression, we have just arrived at the book of Ecclesiastes. We have been reading about the significance of time, and why there is no meaning apart from God. We have been tracking right along with what you have said to us this morning.

This is a day for remembering. My thoughts have meandered back through 32 years of memories, stories and events. Sitting on that table, right there, is a lamp that I bought for my first office in 1977. And I want it back! (Laughter) The desk that I use every day was also purchased for my first office. A Regulator clock still hangs on my wall that Shirley bought for me three decades ago. It never worked, but I couldn’t throw it away. I complained about that clock in my first film series in 1978, and I should have got rid of it long ago. I am just too sentimental to do it.

I am thinking of the journey that Shirley and I have taken through all these years. In keeping with Ecclesiastes, there was a time for me to go to graduate school and there was a time when that work was completed. The day I passed my final orals and was granted a Ph.D., I got in my Volkswagen and prayed this heartfelt prayer: “Lord, You have some people who are willing to serve You, but are not specifically qualified in an area; You have others who are qualified but not willing. I have been given a measure of both. Please use me for Your purpose, and show me what that is.”

I was soon asked to join the attending staff of Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles in the division of child development and later, medical genetics. Three years later, I was also made an assistant professor of pediatrics at USC School of Medicine. That rewarding assignment came to an end 14 years later when the Lord seemed to be saying, “I know you are comfortable here. I know you are enjoying what you are doing, but I have a different plan. It is time for you to move on.”

With some trepidation, we opened a little two-room office in Arcadia, Calif., and named our new ministry “Focus on the Family.” Frankly, I wasn’t sure where it was headed. If I might use a metaphor, Shirley and I got in a single-engine airplane called Focus and taxied down the runway. It gradually lifted off the ground and we were on our way.

There have been many exhilarating moments during the flight, along with occasional turbulence. We also had to learn to deal with antiaircraft fire coming from the ground. That brings us to today. The Focus plane is no longer a single-engine craft. A 747 just landed this morning. It will continue on its journey tomorrow, but I will not be serving as its captain. Jim Daly will occupy the “left seat.”

I was also thinking this morning about the first Board meeting that took place in June of 1977. In fact, I brought this leather-bound volume of minutes with me. I looked an hour ago at the record of the early meetings, including our second gathering. Stated there in unmistakable language is a provision that I was to be paid $10,000 per year in salary. I have never received one cent of it! (Laughter) To the members of the Board of Directors who are with us today, I want to remind you that you owe me $320,000! [Actually, I said the Board owed me $32,000, because my math suddenly needed to reboot.]

Now we come to this historic day, and I want to explain my decision to step down. I provided a statement for the press yesterday, and I want to read a few words of it now. I wrote:

One of the common errors made by founder-presidents is to hold the reins of leadership too long, thereby preventing the next generation from being prepared for executive authority.

That typically happens when an entrepreneur serves as a midwife at the birth of a new “baby.” He nurtures it through infancy, early childhood and then into full-blown adolescence. During this process, the founder becomes deeply committed to the “child” he has brought into the world, which entices him to hold on too tightly when the individual is grown. This is not only true for organizational leaders; it also occurs among many parents whose children have become adults. They try to exercise authority that is no longer appropriate.

I recognized this danger in 2003 when I stepped down as the president of Focus on the Family. I handed authority to Don Hodel, even though I didn’t want to let go. Frankly, I enjoy making the trains run on time. I spent two weeks thinking about my decision before agreeing to let go. It required me to be willing not only to hand leadership to Don, but to allow him and his successors to reshape the organization in their image, and to implement their ideas and perspectives. Eventually, I concluded that the time had come, and I heard the Lord’s voice asking me, “Do you intend to die on the job and leave the ministry leaderless?” I couldn’t escape the implications of that question.

Likewise, the decision to step down from Board Chairmanship today is an extension of that principle. As before, all my impulses are to resist this relinquishment. I have poured my life into this ministry, during which my team members and I have produced 7,500 radio programs, 320 monthly letters, four film series and much more. That degree of investment makes a person want to hold on to decision-making responsibility.

However, to do so would stifle Focus on the Family’s creativity and impede its growth. Solomon said there is a time for everything, and clearly this is the time to resign from the Board.

Let me make it clear that I am not stepping down because of conflict or because I have been asked to resign. Nor is the decision motivated by illness. I appear to be healthier now than 10 or 20 years ago, although only God knows. I have made this move because two nights ago when we were driving home, Shirley and I felt the leading of the Lord. There’s an old hymn that says, “Jesus led me all the way.” Indeed, He has.

As Dr. Mohler told you a few minutes ago, I am going to continue to be here for the foreseeable future. I will handle some of the same duties that I’ve carried for many years. There are many things that I still want to say and do. We have some wonderful guests coming soon, and we’re working on the June schedule right now. We are not worn out; we’re not limping off; we’re not ending with a whimper. We are simply making a transition, which the Board has been working on since the 1980s.

This is actually the second phase of a three-part plan. The final step will be to retire, but I will fight that one tooth and nail. We all have our limits, after all. (Smile)

The final portion of my statement to the press was this:

We at Focus are blessed to have a great leader in Jim Daly and a wonderfully experienced and intelligent Board of Directors. That fact gave me the courage to let them run the ministry, and with God’s help, they will do it superbly.

Let me say to each of you and to our friends around the world that we will continue to carry on the mission with which we began. Despite the dangers faced by families and the nation, we are not going to get discouraged. We will continue to teach the principles that we read in the Scripture, even if we are made to look foolish at times. Our purpose will be, as it has been for 32 years, to serve Jesus Christ with all our resources. I have been given that assurance by the Board of Directors.

I also want to express my great love and appreciation for my beloved wife, Shirley, in whom I’m well pleased. You cannot imagine the confidence and support that she has been to me for 48 years. Would you stand, Shirley?

(Applause)

I also appreciate my son and daughter-in-law, Ryan and Laura, who are here today. The Lord has laid the same message on Ryan for delivery to the younger generation. He has a different way of getting it out, including Internet radio, but he is committed to the same truths. And our daughter, Danae, also has a great heart for the Lord. She is speaking and finishing her 23rd book, so I’m very proud of her, too.

Let me end with this: Shirley and I went to London in 1995, and while there, we visited Chartwell, which was Winston Churchill’s country home. He did much of his writing and painting there.

As you know, I admire Churchill because he remained confident and courageous in 1940 when everyone around him was frightened and dismayed. That’s why he has been a role model for me when I have been under the heaviest criticism for what I believe and teach.

While we were visiting Chartwell, which is a museum today, I observed a hand-written, personal note that was penned by President Franklin Roosevelt in the terrifying days at the beginning of World War II. Roosevelt quoted Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem titled “O Ship of State.” I only have time to quote five lines from the poem, but they seem relevant to the perils that face the institution of the family and the challenges in the rest of the country today. I share this quote also for the benefit of our Board of Directors. These are Longfellow’s words:

Thou, too, sail on, O Ship of State!
Sail on, O Union, strong and great!
Humanity with all its fears,
With all the hopes of future years,
Is hanging breathless on thy fate!

I don’t want to overstate the responsibility of Focus on the Family in trying to save the family and defend our nation’s moral integrity. We can only do what is assigned to us. But both the family and the nation continue to be in jeopardy, and we will not be deterred in completing the work we are called to do. The hopes and fears of future years hang breathless on thy fate. It is my desire to continue making a small contribution to their survival.

Thank you, everybody.

(Applause)

Well, dear friends, that is the story. It is a strange sensation to have relinquished all decision-making authority after three decades at the helm. But as I said during my remarks, it would be selfish and unwise for Shirley and me to hold the reins of leadership as time marches on.

Please continue to pray for Jim Daly and his staff at Focus on the Family. He is a husband and father of a young family, as I was when this ministry took shape in 1977. I understand the pressures that are on him today. I also ask you to pray for the success of our mission to nurture and defend the family. It is more desperately needed now than ever. You can be sure that I will continue to be on the front lines of the battle for righteousness in the culture. As I said to the press after the chapel service, “You’re not through with me yet!” Nothing will change for me except the decision-making responsibility and Board leadership. These offices are in good hands today.

Your financial help is still needed, of course, in these economically troubled times. Thank you for your contributions during the critical year-end period and in January and February. You have been there for us, often at a personal sacrifice. Though we had to reduce our staff by 250 people in late 2008, and I still grieve over their loss, we are on target with a lower budget. Many ministries are hurting even more. Don’t forget your local church in your planned giving program. I’m sure they are in need, too.

Thanks for all the kind e-mails, calls and letters you sent in response to our decision. I think of you as members of our family.

One more thing: When people say to you that I have retired, please tell them, “NO WAY, JOSE!” Dobson is still on the job.

In Jesus’ name,

James C. Dobson, Ph.D.
Founder and Chairman Emeritus
Focus on the Family

Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, NIV

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven:
a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot,
a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build,
a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance,
a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain,
a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away,
a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak,
a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace.

What is God asking you to do in your time?