Howard Dayton founded Crown Ministries in 1985 and developed a remarkably effective small group financial study. Crown Ministries merged with Larry Burkett's Christian Financial Concepts in September 2000 to form Crown Financial Ministries, the world's largest financial ministry. His life–long passion for applying God's principles to financial management dates back to 1974 when a business partner challenged him to study the Scriptures to discover what God teaches about handling money. The result has been a series of book clearly explaining God's principles for handling money: Your Money: Frustration or Freedom, Your Money Counts, Free and Clear, and his most recent book, Your Money Map. Howard and his wife, Beverly, reside in Gainesville, Georgia and have two children.