Dr. James Dobson gave the church a model of counseling that served both faith and family …

From the moment that much of the Christian world learned this morning — August 21, 2025 — that Dr James C. Dobson had passed away at age 89, there has been a tremor of both grief and gratitude across congregations and counseling communities. For those who are both ministers and Christian counselors like myself, his life’s work has been more than an influential voice, it’s been a touchstone in affirming that mental health and faith walk together courageously.

In 1977, Dr Dobson founded Focus on the Family, a ministry that for decades became a household name across America. Through its radio broadcasts, books, counseling materials, and conferences, it reached millions with a simple but profound mission: to strengthen marriages and families with biblical truth and practical wisdom. Parents found encouragement in seasons of weariness, marriages found tools to endure when tensions threatened to unravel them, and churches found a trusted partner in equipping people for the challenges of family life. It is a ministry I still strongly endorse to couples and families today, because it continues to provide some of the most faithful and practical guidance available for marriage, parenting, and the complexities of daily life.

The heartbeat of Focus on the Family was counseling. Dobson’s training as a child psychologist and his deep Christian faith gave him a rare ability to speak to families with both scientific insight and pastoral compassion. At a time when many Christians viewed psychology with suspicion, he demonstrated that sound counseling paired with biblical truth could serve the church rather than threaten it. A friend recently told me of a minister who took a public swipe at Christian psychologists – yet another example of how stigma still lingers in some corners of the church. Dr Dobson’s work, by contrast, modeled how Christian mental health professionals can come alongside church leaders in a way that is not competitive or negative but complementary, offering wisdom that meets people in their struggles without ever diminishing the truth of God’s Word.

After leaving Focus on the Family in 2010, Dobson did not step away from his calling. He established the James Dobson Family Institute, under which he launched Family Talk, a radio broadcast ministry that carried forward his mission to counsel families with both biblical wisdom and the insights of Christian psychology. This work showed that his devotion was never tied to one institution but to a lifelong vocation of strengthening marriages and guiding parents in the daily challenges of faith and family. Through the Institute and its broadcast, he remained a steady voice of counsel, offering hope, healing, and direction long after his tenure at Focus on the Family.

While Dr Dobson often drew attention in the public square, his deepest legacy is not measured in headlines or policy debates. It is found in the steady work of counseling families, in the countless homes where his books were read aloud, in the radio programs that carried hope into kitchens and living rooms, and in the marriages and children who were steadied by his counsel. He gave voice to the conviction that Christian psychology is not the enemy of the church but a servant of it — a conviction that must endure.

As we reflect on his passing, the challenge that remains is clear. Pastors and counselors alike are called to resist the careless stigma that too often clouds conversations about mental health, and instead to follow the example Dr Dobson lived: to take the tools of psychology, anchor them in scripture, and use them to build up marriages and families with compassion and truth. That work did not end with his death. It continues in the ministries he founded and in every Christian willing to serve families with the same devotion.

Scotty