Poverty-proof your family, community and world. And Crown Thy Good is the outgrowth of 25 years of professional mission and ministry among some of the lowest income people of the United States. Nearly all of us would choose to alleviate the poverty of others if we knew how. And Crown Thy Good is the answer to that God-designed desire. In 1988, four of us were commissioned by the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church to study America. Our task was to visit the 25 lowest-income rural counties and report. Our theme was simple. Why are these counties low income, and what could and should the Church and outside society, at all levels, do about it? And Crown Thy Good is a rare glimpse into the poverty of rural America. Our team asked about economics, education, religion, politics, gossip, and every sort of potentially important issue we could find. The data taken by itself in the book taken from trusted census and commercial sources is invaluable to pastors, mission leaders, denominational leaders, politicians and others as we try to rebuild the economies of the poorest of the poor.