Johnnie Mae Haley, an only child born in Alabama and raised in Columbus, Mississippi, was named by her father who desired a son. She overcame many challenges and obstacles to become an inspiration to others, teaching them that prosperity is their birthright.
The Reverend Dr. Johnnie Colemon, Founder-Minister of Christ Universal Temple, is a New Thought Church with almost 20,000 members. Her message centers on teaching people how to improve their lives. As Pastor of this flourishing church, she is often called the First Lady of America’s Religious Community.
Johnnie Colemon is a builder and a teacher who has constructed six buildings, including three churches, two educational institutions, and a restaurant and banquet facility, to disseminate her “better living” teachings. Her first church was Christ Unity Temple, which was later expanded. Due to the growth of the congregation, they moved to the current Christ Universal Temple, located on a sprawling campus at 119th Street (renamed Rev. Johnnie Colemon Drive in 1996) and Ashland Avenue in Chicago. Nearly 4,000 people attend services every Sunday to learn how to think, rather than what to think. Colemon’s experiences have led her to share the message: “Change Your Thoughts and Change Your Life.”
THE BEGINNING
JC had no initial aspirations to become a minister, let alone a renowned one with a vast following. She had different dreams altogether. With a smile, she reminisced about her early ambitions, stating, “I never wanted to be a minister; this was never part of my plan. I wanted to be a saxophone player, and if that didn’t work out, I dreamt of being a chorus girl in a New York stage production, like the Rockettes. That’s what I truly desired.”
An only child, JC said, “As a little girl, my father wanted a boy and that’s why my name is Johnnie because his name was John Haley and I was little John Haley–even if I was a girl because that’s what he wanted. Therefore, I had to be like a boy – I had to do all the things in sports that boys would do. My father built me a basketball court right in my yard, but he would lecture to the boys when they came over to play with me, and the lecture was, ‘Remember, this is my baby. If anybody hurts her, you have a problem and are in trouble. Now, do you want to play or not?’ the boys would all say, ‘Yes, we want to play.’ They were cautious so that nobody would hurt me and they let me win cause they knew better than not to let me win. After all, my father was a bad John Haley! He didn’t know anything about truth.”
Johnnie Colemon’s father was the first African American brakeman on the Mobile Railroad in Columbus, Mississippi. She sometimes joined him at work as a child and rode with him on the train. “Everybody knew I was John Haley’s daughter. I could walk in any store and get anything I wanted, and say, ‘This is John Haley’s Daughter’, which was a part of my childhood. Then, my father made his transition when I was 15 and my mother became a single parent. Since my father wanted a boy, I never did what normal girls did in their childhood. For example, I never played with dolls because I had in my mind that my father wanted a boy and boys don’t play with dolls. So, I was to him what he wanted me to be. I could shoot pool and all of those things and do it well.”
BUILDING HER RESOLVE
The death of Dr. Colemon’s father was brutal in the beginning for her to handle. After getting the news, she remembers, “I walked in my house, and went straight out the back door over to my neighbor’s house– who was always like a mother to me, and stayed there a whole week before I would go home. I didn’t know how to adjust. I was in the Methodist Church and had been there all my life. Since I didn’t know how to adjust, I just knew my father was not there and I was not going back there because he was not there. Finally, I got over it and I went home. That really tests my mother because, like mothers today, they try to make up for the father or whatever they think you don’t have.”
With the influence of her Father no longer in her life, JC recalled, “I had to come back and be a girl; so, my mother had different things for me to be and to do. I had to follow what she wanted for another reason, because you may think I’m funny looking now—you should have seen me when I was growing up in the South. I was almost this tall [5’9½”], very skinny and very everything you could name except beautiful. Therefore, I had to find a way to tell the world, ‘I’m here because I’m here. So, I had an attitude about how I looked. When I was a baby, they would look into the buggy and say, ‘Oh, it sure is dressed nicely.’ They didn’t know if I was a boy or a girl, and that was the kind of thing I worked through from the beginning. When I went to high school, I had to be the smartest there because nobody can take it away from you once you do that.”
Johnnie Colemon attended Union Academy, an all-black high school in Columbus, Mississippi, where her mother, Lula Parker, was a teacher. JC remembers Mother Parker as, “A very tough lady. It didn’t matter that she was a teacher there; I had to do what everybody else had to do, and she saw to it. I only lived one block from the school, but I was late every morning. I never did like to get up in the morning. I could stay up all night, but let me sleep in the morning. I never got to school on time. When I went to Wiley College in Marshall, TX, I was the most versatile four years straight, meaning I could do anything anytime. At that school, you had to be the right color, which was not my color, or you had to own oil wells. So, if you weren’t rich or the right color, then the Sorority that you wanted to be in wouldn’t let you in. I had to be extra smart in everything to say to them that color does not make any difference and doesn’t make you what you are. You don’t have to tell it or have right signs about who you are, because, as the Bible says, ‘By your fruits you are known.’ All you have to do is let God do what he has to do in and through you. You get out of the way and God will take care of the rest. He’s taken care of me all of my life.”
THE CALL THAT OPENED HER MIND TO HEALING
(From Dr. Colemon’s book, ‘Open Your Mind And Be Healed’)
Johnnie Colemon’s journey to healing began in the early 1950s with a phone call after she was diagnosed with an incurable disease. “My phone was ringing at eight o’clock in the morning, and I answered the phone. The voice on the other end of the line said, ‘I’m looking for Johnnie Haley.’ I said, ‘speaking.’ And, the person said, ‘Medical science says that you have six months to live – you have an incurable disease.’ I said, ‘What!’ I hung up the phone and sat there for a moment with tears streaming down my cheeks, and then I stood up to go back to my bedroom. As I passed the cocktail table, a magazine fell to the floor. I picked the magazine up, held it up, and jumped off the page. The line said, ‘God is your health, you can’t be sick.’ Now, I’m standing in the middle of the floor arguing with a magazine because how can you tell me I can’t be sick and the man just told me I’m going to die in six months – something is wrong!
“When I asked my mother who had written the material I was reading, she replied, ‘I’ve been putting this Unity School literature all over the house for years and you wouldn’t touch it; and now I see you standing here with it.’ She told me that if I wanted to know anything about Unity School or Practical Christianity, I should go to the source and ask them. So, I got on the train and went to Kansas City. At that time, Unity Farm (now called Unity Village) was located in Lee’s Summit, Missouri. When I walked through the gates, I was overcome with a feeling I had never felt. The place was so beautiful, with perfect hedges and flowers, and friendly squirrels greeting me. It was the greatest place I had ever seen.”
A Unity teacher approached Dr. Colemon and struck up a conversation. She was still in awe, informing the teacher of her limited time. “You don’t have to die.” JC told the teacher, “I don’t want to die because I have not yet learned how to live. And the teacher said, ‘We will teach you how to live as long as you want.’ I said, ‘this is the place for me, sign me up.” JC was the first African-American student to live at Unity Village. She quickly returned home to pack for the summer sessions at Unity, which would last four years. “I can’t tell you when I was healed,” JC offered, “All I know is that the healing took place. My body became whole.”
THE COLOR OF UNITY
After finishing her studies, Dr. Colemon was appointed President of The Association of Unity Churches. “By doing my time at Unity School, I made a discovery very early in the first year I was there,” explains Dr. Colemon. “I thought I was there to receive a healing for Johnnie Colemon. That was not the reason I was there. I was there because the beautiful literature they wrote then and still write was all about love and how much we must love each other. But, every night when my classes were over, I would have to drive from Lee’s Summit to Kansas City, which was 15 miles in the morning and 15 miles in the evening because of my skin color, and I could not live on Unity Farm. I knew why I was there. I completely took the focus off of being healed and began to say, ‘What am I supposed to do about this situation?’ I could not swim in the swimming pool because my skin was black. When I learned how to pray, they taught me where God is – not up in the sky, but inside me. Then, I could talk to God whenever I wanted to, however I wanted to. I began to ask God what I’m supposed to do about this situation. However, my answer did not come immediately.”
ROCKING THE BOAT
During her third year at Unity, Johnnie Colemon drove back and forth from Kansas City to Unity. Her car got stuck and flooded under a viaduct during a heavy rainstorm. After struggling with the ignition, the car eventually started, and she arrived at Unity with words and wisdom that were not Unity-based. “I was distraught. I walked into the dining room where everybody was having breakfast. I was wet, so I took my coat off, threw it on the floor, and said, ‘I’m finished with this – you can have it! I told them what happened to me and said, ‘I’m not taking this anymore. If I can’t stay on the Farm like everybody else, this is it. They rushed over and begged me and said, ‘Please, you only have one more year and we will sign a petition so that you can stay here. They passed the petition, and everybody signed it. I got a letter stating that I could stay at Unity Village for my last year in school.”
Dr. Colemon returned, but was housed in a workers’ cottage at the edge of the Village. “I had to work with myself to say, ‘Do it whether you want to or not. Not for yourself, but you will open a pathway for all Black students to be able to come and live here. Last year, I was allowed to stay there, and my mother stayed with me for protection. The first nights were kind of cold; because we didn’t have the proper covers. So, I called one of my friends and she got up and gave us blankets—-that was the beginning.” She became an ordained minister and received her teaching certificate during her final year.
HIGHWAY 50
Dr. Colemon realized that it was time to move beyond the cottage at the end of the Village, as she had finished school and was serving on numerous boards. “At this time, I’m out of school,” she explains, “And, I can afford to say the things that I wanted and needed to say. Finally, they moved all the Black students into the cottage, but I moved out because I didn’t like staying there. So, I moved to a Holiday Inn, which was on Highway #50 at that time. On the highway was a Holiday Inn, which did not accept Back people. I went there and said, ‘I want a room.’ And, they said, ‘We will tell you where you can go – it’s down the road.’ I went and never found the hotel they were discussing, but I returned and said, ‘There was no hotel. I will stay here, or you don’t stay here!’ He looked up at me and said, ‘You sure have a lot of nerve.’ And I said, ‘You haven’t seen anything yet; so, you better give me some keys and a room!’ He gave me the keys and a room and we became best friends. God gives you whatever you need whenever you need it because I knew that wasn’t me doing that, it had to be the presence of God. I learned enough to know who God is and Johnnie Colemon is, my relationship to God and how He wanted to use me. This was my assignment from God. At that particular time, I had studied enough to know the principles and the truth that Jesus Christ taught; so I knew this is what I was supposed to do.”
Reverend Doctor Johnnie Colemon hosted a Youth Conference at Unity, inviting all Black children to attend, because she was confident in her understanding of God. “When they got there, I told everyone of them to go to their rooms and put their swimsuits on. When they came down to the swimming pool, I pushed them all in it! Then, I had a very lovely statement and affirmation for them at Unity. ‘Black does not come off in water! It’s all right. Be at peace.’ After that, they calmed down and the Black kids danced and swam with the white children and so it was.”
THE PIONEER
Johnnie Colemon’s strong leadership and understanding of the need for a new association of independent New Thought churches established the Universal Foundation for Better Living, Inc. As a member of the International New Thought Alliance, she served as District President and Chairperson of the 60th INTA Congress in Chicago. Her travels also took her to London, England, where she was the guest speaker at the Festival of Mind and Body, accompanied by her children’s choir, Youth Vibrations.
Johnnie Colemon was a pioneer in the media ministry. In the 1970s, she appeared weekly on her television program “Better Living with Johnnie Colemon,” which was broadcast in nine markets. She was also a popular guest on radio and television and has been featured in major media publications.
Johnnie Colemon has received many honors and awards, including the Ministry of the Century Award from the International New Thought Alliance (INTA) for her work in organizing and developing the New Thought movement. A portrait of Colemon was unveiled at the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Center at Morehouse College at the start of the 21st century. She has been awarded honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from both Wiley College in Texas (her alma mater) and Monrovia College, and a Doctor of Humane Letters from the Industrial Institute of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, both located in Monrovia, Liberia, West Africa.
THE MESSAGE & THE MINISTRY
The Reverend Doctor Johnnie Colemon’s spiritual journey began with a miraculous healing, a revelation that inspired her to share the abundant blessings of spiritual nourishment with countless others. “The only way my body could be healed was from a master physician—by the physician that made me in the first place. I had to realize that if you made me— then if anything gets out of order, you can fix it because you made me in the first place. What God has done for me, He will do for you. But, there are some steps you’ll have to take because sickness does not come from God. None of these so-called negative things come from God. God is good. God is love. God is everything positive that you can name. And, when I found what caused all the negation that we express, I know the only reason people do not do better is because they don’t know any better. They don’t do better because nobody has taught them. When the master physician healed me, I wanted everyone to hear this. So, the only way I could get my message over is when my family would sit down to eat dinner, and I would say, ‘You’ve got to listen to what I’ve learned – whether you want to or not. I kept teaching them every opportunity, my family grew from four to my best friend, and that’s how it all started – at my dinner table.”
Dr. Colemon’s message is clear; ‘As above, so below – as within, so without’. She says, “I never will stop discovering all that God has put inside of me. The greatest discovery that I made was to know that within every man, woman, and child there is the Christ. And, the Christ is God’s idea of Himself. Now, when you stop and realize that all of God is inside of you, you are not expressing it only because you don’t know how. When you realize that heaven and hell are not places, they are states of mind. Then, you realize when you are sick; you are in hell, when you are broke; you are in hell. To be in heaven is to enjoy prosperity; prosperity does not just mean money. Prosperity means love, health, joy, and peace – all the good things. But, it includes money— so, I teach it because I need money. I have not learned yet to go in a store and give the lady behind the counter the affirmation that ‘God is the source of my supply,’ and I can walk out with my fur coat – it doesn’t work that way.”
A Q&A TEACHING MINISTRY
Why do you call Christ Universal Temple a Teaching Ministry?
“I call this a Teaching Ministry because it does exactly what the word teaching means. To teach means to make it clear and simple. Another reason I call this a teaching ministry is because I don’t want somebody calling up one of my members the next morning and asking, ‘What was it about?’ And, my member says, ‘Oh, honey I don’t know, but we sure did have a good time.’ My church is not for you to come here and have a good time. My church is designated so that if somebody asks you what happened at church, you can give them a principle you were taught and now it’s up to you to practice it and use it.”
Why do you give so much information and ask for little in return?
“My ministers have often asked me, ‘Why do you give this stuff away to so many people?’ They don’t belong to me; they belong to God, and He wants his children to receive them. Those that accept Him and believe in Him will be set free. God does not care whether you are black, white, green or poke-a-dot. If you’ve got the principles and believe in them as Jesus did– when the multitudes came to Him with everything all He asked was one question, ‘Do you believe?’ and if the answer was ‘Yes Lord, I do believe.’ His next statement was ‘Go your way, it’s already done.’”
Why New Thought?
“We are metaphysicians. Meta means beyond. We go beyond to the inner part and get the real meaning. We do that with the bible. The bible is your life story; if you go beyond the physical, you will get the inner meaning. Every character in the bible represents a part of you. God gave us twelve faculties represented by His twelve disciples, which are located throughout our bodies. Because we are made in His image, we have the power to direct, to give the instructions to these faculties within our bodies.”
At Christ Universal Temple, the mantra is, ‘It Works If You Work It.’ What does that mean?
“I work with Johnnie Colemon all the time and any lesson, prayer or sermon that I’m giving, I’m not giving to the people sitting there—I’m teaching Johnnie Colemon. One day as I was praying, that statement came—-it works if you work it. It comes from within you; if you are not meditating and have your attention on God, you miss it. But, I heard the Father say, ‘It works if you work it.’ It can’t work unless you work it. If it’s not working, it’s not God’s fault, it is your fault. For prosperity, health and peace to work, you’ve got to get rid of some things. You’ve got to let go of some things. You’ve got to stop gossiping. You’ve got to stop being jealous. You have got to let all of that go and realize that the same God that is within me is within you, and can do for you the same things He has done for me.”
You are the thinker that thinks the thought that makes the thing. Please explain that statement.
“Once again, I am a metaphysician, which means I deal with the mind. Everything begins in the mind. And, if it begins in the mind, whatever the effects are in your world, life and affairs, you must find the cause. There’s a cause for every effect. You’ve got to think the right thoughts because every thought comes back to you. Whatever you think, you have made it. How does it come back? It comes back from the substance of God. And, the substance of God is like a big piece of dough; with no form and no shape — just a huge piece of dough waiting for you to use the cutter to make an incision out of this big piece of dough. Your thoughts are the cookie cutter; whatever you think says, ‘I am the thinker that thinks the thought that makes the thing.’ Therefore, you must be very careful about what you think, say, and feel. Because what I think will not hurt you will only hurt me.”
Christ Universal Temple and The Universal Foundation for Better Living, Inc.
Established in June 1974 by Dr. Colemon and headquartered in Chicago, Christ Universal Temple and The Universal Foundation for Better Living, Inc. (UFBL) is an association of independent New Thought (metaphysical) churches dedicated to sharing Jesus Christ’s abundant-living message globally. UFBL comprises twenty churches and study groups across the USA, South America, Canada, and the West Indies.
The Johnnie Colemon Institute (JCI)
The Johnnie Colemon Institute (JCI), chartered by the State of Illinois, serves as the educational branch of the Universal Foundation for Better Living. JCI provides a range of programs, including the Better Living Program, Teacher and Counselor Training, Ministerial Training, Seminars, Leadership Training, and Correspondence Courses.
REST IN POWER
Reverend Dr. Johnnie Colemon, often hailed as the “First Lady of New Thought,” was born on February 18, 1920, in Centerville, Alabama, and passed away on December 23, 2014, at 94.
For more information, please visit www.cutemple.org.
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