Jones was surprised when a Methodist district superintendent helped him get a start in the church, even though he knew Jones to be a communist. In 1952, he became a student pastor at the Sommerset Southside Methodist Church, but later claimed he left the church because its leaders forbade him from integrating blacks into his congregation. Around this time, Jones witnessed a faith-healing service at a Seventh Day Baptist Church. He observed that it attracted people and their money, and concluded that he could accomplish his social goals with financial resources from such services.