Cornelius Jerome Jones, known as "C. J.," was born in 1944 in Pennsylvania, where he lived with his grandparents. His grandfather was active in the United Mine Workers Union and they were the only black family in their small town. His grandparents provided a Christian home and strong role models, especially his grandfather. When his grandfather became ill, C.J. moved to New Jersey to be with his mother, who worked for the Manville Company while living in housing provided by the company. Again, they were the only black family in the community. He and his mother did not regularly attend church because they could not attend the white churches nearby and they did not have transportation to the closest but still distant black church.

Jones soon encountered racial hostility, especially in high school. While he excelled in sports, he discovered that the full sports college scholarships went largely to white students. Jones responded to this exclusion with frustration and bitterness, began running around with a rough crowd, and was arrested. With the help of some caring adults, he was able to attend Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Confronted here with other ideas about race, Jones joined the civil rights movement, later dropping out of school to join the movement full time. Jones rejected his Christian faith due to disillusionment with the hypocrisy he saw in the church.

Jones then went to work for Mary Holmes Junior College in northern Mississippi as the assistant to the vice-president for development and later he began his own business. Through the testimony of a Christian friend, he recaptured his earlier faith and became involved in a church community. He was subsequently invited to join the work of the Mendenhall Ministries in Mendenhall, Mississippi. In 1987, his job description was somewhat open-ended, illustrated by the variety of tasks he oversaw: accounting, planning projects, managing personnel, writing publicity, working with the youth and summer enrichment programs, and coordinating volunteers.