The Orphan Who Became Shelter

The night before he stepped up to be the new president of Focus on the Family, the world’s largest parachurch family-help organization, Jim Daly didn’t sleep a wink.

It was 2005. Lying in bed, Jim stared at the ceiling and fantasized about walking into his office the next morning and quitting on the spot. Filling the shoes of founder James Dobson, the renowned evangelical leader who turned Focus on the Family into an international Christian ministry and radio broadcast phenomenon, felt daunting at best.

Dobson was a family expert with a doctorate in psychology who had been raised in a mostly happy Christian home. Meanwhile, Jim had grown up in a fractured, dysfunctional family. As he stepped into his new role, he felt woefully unqualified to lead a ministry known for fostering and equipping healthy families.

“All that was running through my mind was ‘Why me?’” Jim recalled about that evening so long ago. “I thought, ‘I’m the broken toy. Not the good toy.’”

Before Jim became the head of Focus on the Family, a position he’s held for the past 20 years, he was a 9-year-old boy standing stoically at his mother’s grave. When he and his siblings returned from the ceremony, they discovered their stepfather had packed up his belongings, distraught. He abandoned them within hours of the funeral.

Their biological father wasn’t an option. He had abused their mother when Jim was young and died of alcoholism a few years after her death. Thrust into the foster care system, Jim landed in a new home — where his situation only went from bad to worse.

“Bad stepdad? Check. Horrible father? Check,” Jim said, counting off his fingers. “I probably experienced almost every family type that you could have. I didn’t have a Ph.D. like Dr. Dobson, but I got a pretty good education on what a broken family looks like.”

At the time, his difficult upbringing didn’t feel like preparation. But now, Jim sees how his early years have shaped his leadership style — and his legacy — at Focus on the Family.

“I’m a classic person who fell into passion out of my pain,” Jim said. “I feel like God gave me those experiences so I could now speak to an audience that has experienced the same. That’s what I think about every day when I get up and come into Focus on the Family. I want to help families avoid that kind of destruction.”

Founded in the 1970s, Focus on the Family has grown into a globally recognized media-centered ministry. Each week, 4.6 million people tune into the Focus on the Family Broadcast, a National Radio Hall of Fame program that Jim has hosted since 2010. Beyond its flagship radio show, the organization offers resources and programs for families in crisis, addressing everything from pastoral concerns to teen suicide prevention to parenting challenges.

Jim’s personal impact on the ministry has been more subtle, but meaningful. Over the years, he’s worked to shift Focus on the Family’s tone to one that’s more accessible and relatable. Where the early years carried a strong emphasis on ideals and standards, Jim’s leadership has leaned into grace — recognizing the realities and hardships most families face.

“I want to bring our message down to the common folk, which is what I see myself as,” Jim explained. “You don’t have to be perfect. We are all broken. I love the comment when someone says, ‘I relate to Jim. It feels like I could have a beer with him.’ Because I’d like to have a beer with them, too. I feel like that’s how the Lord would do it. That’s today’s Focus on the Family.”

That down-to-earth philosophy has shaped new outreach efforts, particularly those focused on vulnerable children and broken homes. As someone who knows what it’s like to grow up without a safety net, Jim has made children’s needs a central part of Focus’ mission and prioritizes programs that support adoption, foster care and marriage restoration.

For example, through his own experience as a child in foster care, and now as a foster parent, having fostered 15 children with his wife, Jean, Jim has seen kids arrive at his home carrying their few belongings in trash bags or worn-out boxes. To restore dignity in those moments, Focus on the Family launched a suitcase-bundle program through its Wait No More initiative. Since its launch, the program has provided more than 51,000 suitcases to children in foster care — each one packed with a Bible, a teddy bear and a handwritten letter reminding them they are loved.

“These are the things that I’m really proud of,” Jim said. “When I travel and speak, I’ve had a number of people come up to me and say, ‘We were adopted because of you.’”

Though Focus on the Family is best known nationally, it has also left a deep mark locally in Colorado Springs, where its headquarters are located in the Briargate area. However, the relationship between Focus on the Family and the city has been tumultuous at times. Over the years, the nonprofit’s religious and political views have drawn criticism and even sparked local backlash, including a wave of bumper stickers that read “Focus on Your Own Damn Family” that popped up around town and which Jim, for the record, found hilarious.

However, under Jim’s leadership, Focus on the Family has had a positive impact in the Colorado Springs community. The ministry has invested in community outreach, from supporting local nonprofits like Mary’s Home, a women’s shelter, to helping get funding from the state for hot breakfasts for schools across Colorado.

Jim has also worked to build relationships with local leaders, including those who disagree with the organization’s religious or political views, in hopes of creating common ground and building bridges in the midst of differences.

“We’re all human, yeah?” Jim asked. “That’s one of the core things that we, as Christians, forget. It’s good to reach out and talk to people normally. We’re not always going to agree, but not everything has to be adversarial.”

For Jim, encountering trials from a young age taught him resilience and humility and that, at the end of the day, the mission will always be bigger than the man. He still remembers how he felt that sleepless night before taking the helm — unsure, overwhelmed and certain he wasn’t the right man for the job. In many ways, he still feels that way, but he’s come to trust that God can work through brokenness, not just in spite of it.

“My wife and I used to pray every night about the poor guy who had to follow Dr. Dobson. I just never knew I was praying for myself,” remembered Jim. “The Lord’s got a great sense of humor, because I never wanted this role, never thought this was something I could do. But when I look back, I think to myself ‘We’ve done it.’”

With the passing of founder Dobson just this year at age 89, an era came to a close for the evangelical leader whose vision launched Focus on the Family. His passing underscored just how significant Daly’s two decades of stewardship have been, shaping the ministry with grace, relatability, and a deep empathy for broken families.