Crown Financial
Vision:
To see the followers of Christ in every nation faithfully living by God's financial principles in every area of their lives.
Mission:
Equipping people worldwide to learn, apply, and teach God's financial
principles so they may know Christ more intimately, be free to serve
Him, and help fund the Great Commission.
Core Values:
Crown Financial Ministries is a Christ-centered, Bible-based ministry
whose core values include recognition of God's ownership of all things,
the need to pray about everything, and the desire to equip and serve
others with excellence while teaching in ways understood by all
cultures and generations.
Major objective:
To teach God's financial principles to 300 million people by September 15, 2015.
Brand Promise
True Financial Freedom
The Birth of Crown Financial Ministries
Larry
Burkett and Howard Dayton had been acquaintances for years and friends
since the early 1990s. Concurrently, God had impressed both men with
the need to expand into new areas for their respective ministries.
Howard had founded Crown Ministries on September 19, 1985. He recognized that Crown Ministries was doing an excellent job one church at a time with small study groups in many parts of the country and the world. However, he had a vision to reach millions, not thousands. Something was missing.
Larry had seen phenomenal growth in the outreach of Christian Financial Concepts since he founded it on May 6, 1976. Yet, the one area he wanted to impact with small study groups was the local church. The radio broadcasts had given Larry ready recognition all around the country and in many parts of the world. But something was missing.
A Ministry Marriage Was Needed
Every once in a
while a really good idea comes along, like ministries combining forces
to do God's work better. But then personalities and possessiveness get
in the way and it usually falls apart. Not this time. This time the
leaders listened to the Lord, and Christian Financial Concepts and
Crown Ministries decided to get married. Of course, when Christian
Financial Concepts and Crown Ministries decided to merge their
strengths, respective know-how, and experience into one ministry, it
was obvious that God must have been at work in the process. But, how
did it happen?
Organizations often merge when a weaker one is taken over by another. However, why would two healthy ministries want to merge and thus lose their individual identities? It is rare for flourishing organizations that function well individually, and already serve hundreds of thousands of God's people, to combine into a singular ministry. Almost simultaneously, God began a process of prompting both Howard Dayton and Larry Burkett with an uneasy sense that there was something more that their ministries should be doing. The same Scripture reference kept prompting both Larry and Howard to seek a better way: "Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" (Esther 4:14 NKJV)
After a radio interview, Larry felt led to ask Howard, "Why don't we merge our organizations together?" This led to personal talks between Howard and Larry and, later, to serious discussions with the boards of directors of both ministries. After much study, discussion, and a lot of prayer, the boards of both Crown Ministries and CFC unanimously agreed to merge into a new organization, Crown Financial Ministries, on September 7, 2000.
Howard assumed the role of CEO, and Larry continued to do radio broadcasts and served as the chairman of the board until his home-going on July 4, 2003. The union of these two ministries created an alliance that will have a far-reaching impact on the church in America and around the world. In fact, Larry and Howard had a vision that will allow this marriage of ministries to reach and train more than 5 percent of the world's population (some 300 million) over the next 15 years. If this goal is achieved, the efforts of Crown Financial Ministries will help to fund the Great Commission in a way never seen before.
