Happy Founder’s Day, Everyone!
ABOUT UFBL & DR. JOHNNIE COLEMON
Light bringers come to the world from many diverse backgrounds and with different experiences, but the one thing they all have in common is the power to transform lives by offering new, transformative concepts to ideas that have been around from the beginning of time.
In the early 1950’s a young gifted woman had a diagnosis that was not pleasing. She was told that she had a mere six months to live. Instead of taking this news as a death sentence, she seized the moment to open up her mind to the possibility of living life more abundantly.
As she turned her attention to the intention of health, opportunities began to appear to aid in turning what may have appeared as impossible into a living reality. One day, as she walked past a table in her living room, a pamphlet fell. She picked it up and recognized it was a Unity School of Christianity publication. After she read “God is your health, you can’t be sick,” this became her defining moment. With her mother’s encouragement, she attended the Unity School to learn the principles of spiritual healing.
The call of a soul to do the bidding of Spirit is one that leads through minefields of opportunities, in order to clear away all the mental debris, thus enabling the individual to become a true disciple the Christ. Johnnie had many experiences at Unity School that helped hone her skills and drew out of her all the latent qualities that would be required to complete the work that Spirit had called her to do. After her experiences at the Unity school, she served for 18 years in various positions in the Unity Movement, while building the largest Unity Center, and during that process, became a catalyst for the transformation of many lives.
The Rev. Dr. Johnnie Colemon, Johnnie as she was known by thousands, founded the Universal Foundation for Better Living (UFBL) in June 1974 comprising of New Thought churches, centers, and study groups located throughout the United States, Canada, the Caribbean (Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica) the Bahamas and South America (Guyana).
She also founded the Johnnie Colemon Institute, the teaching arm of her ministry, which has been the Alma Mater to New Thought Leaders who are scattered over many lands.
The cornerstone of the UFBL is spiritual healing. It is from this platform that she brought excitement and innovation to the teaching of the abundant living message. Johnnie also used the written word to teach others and demonstrate her commitment to the work and revelation of the Holy Spirit in the lives of others. Her “healing touch” has blessed thousands of people.
Dr. Colemon’s methodology is chronicled in Open Your Mind and Be Healed (DeVorss) and in a series of books; It Works if You Work It Jubilee Edition (UFBL Press). The story of her early life and ministry is documented in Lessons in Living Abundantly: The Life and Ministry of the Reverend Dr. Johnnie M. Colemon and the DVD, A Woman, A Work, A Wonder (UFBL Press).
Those who had the pleasure of being part of her international ministry share the common belief that she lived and demonstrated what she taught. This is her true legacy; she came so that those who passed her way could live life more abundantly.
In 1995, Dr. Johnnie Colemon passed the baton of leadership as President to Dr. Mary A. Tumpkin, Senior Minister of The Universal Truth Center in Miami, Florida. Mary, as we fondly called her, served as President until her transition in November 2013.
Dr. Johnnie Colemon made her transition on December 23, 2014, and a memorial was held at the edifice that she built. It was a celebration that brought together civic and community leaders, her students, and beneficiaries of her goodness and kindness. She has left behind a legacy that will stand the test of time.
THE FOUNDATION
The Universal Foundation for Better Living (UFBL) is an international association of Bible-based New Thought Christian churches, centers, and study groups dedicated to spreading the abundant life teachings of Jesus the Christ.
The aim of the Foundation is to establish, prepare, and support leaders and their congregations to do ministry effectively in the world. The Rev. Sheila McKeithen, Senior Minister of The Universal Centre of Truth Better Living, Kingston, Jamaica, currently serves as the Foundation’s President.