Christian Outreach Center has called Fort Worth home since 1978, when a husband and wife began handing out paper towels and toilet tissue to people experiencing homelessness on the city's streets. Nearly five decades later, that same spirit of practical kindness shapes a multigenerational, Spirit-led ministry that serves families, single parents, the incarcerated, and anyone seeking connection across differences. What began as a local act of mercy has grown into a movement with a publishing arm, a worship music catalog, and a Circle of Care program reaching people far beyond the church's own walls.
From Paper Towels to a Forty-Eight-Year Legacy
The story of Christian Outreach Center begins with two people whose own childhoods were shaped by struggle. Pastor Johnny R. King, raised by a single mother in obscurity, and his wife Rose King, who grew up alongside five sisters in foster care, founded the church in 1978. They started small, passing out basic supplies to the marginalized and homeless in Fort Worth and walking with families through seasons of faith and perseverance.
What they built grew steadily. For nearly five decades, COC has touched thousands of lives with what the church describes as God's love, restoring families and strengthening communities through faith, service, and compassion. The ministry did not remain static. It expanded into a multigenerational work that today includes written teaching, music, online courses, and structured outreach programs serving single parents, children, returning citizens, and people without stable housing. The heart of the work, however, has not changed. The COC story page sums it up plainly: COC is more than a church, it is a movement of love, kindness, and family.
Carrying the Mission into a New Generation
Pastor Johnny R. King passed in November 2001, but the culture he and Rose established did not leave with him. Today, their son J. King, who leads under the name Jamil King, and his wife Erika King continue the mission with what the church calls a fresh, future-focused vision. Pastor J, as the congregation often refers to him, teaches regularly through the church's YouTube channel and writes prolifically on faith, leadership, economics, and spiritual formation through Jamil King Ministries, the publishing arm housed under COC.
Erika King stands alongside her husband in the work. Together, the Kings describe their calling as reaching from Texas to the nations, raising Christ-centered believers who are Spirit-driven and walking in love, kindness, leadership, and connection. The Kings teach that whatever a leader is bound by privately, they will reproduce publicly, and they model the kind of integrity they preach. The next generation of COC leadership is, in many ways, a continuation of the same family story that began with paper towels on a sidewalk.
Four Pillars: Love, Kindness, Leadership, Connection
The church organizes its life around four values that appear repeatedly across its materials: Love, Kindness, Leadership, and Connection. Love is described as reaching people with the heart of Christ. Kindness is serving others with compassion and care, framed in one of the church's writings as spiritual energy in motion. Leadership is raising strong, faithful, purpose-driven people. Connection is building lasting bridges across generations and communities.
These four pillars are not slogans. They shape the church's vision statement, which calls COC a Christ-centered, Spirit-driven family of multigenerational believers uniting all generations, awakening hearts, and building lasting bridges in our communities. The same conviction shows up in the church's broader teaching: that faith, strategy, and innovation belong together, and that a healthy church moves with wisdom, relevance, modern technology, and purpose while staying anchored in truth. COC presents itself as becoming a church of doers, thinkers, builders, and leaders who reflect Christ in everything we do.
That posture also shapes how the church talks about its own growth. The vision statement commits COC to teaching people to apply God's Word in real, practical ways that bring lasting change to their lives, building strong families, cultivating prosperous careers, and developing individuals who model the character of Christ in every environment. It is a vision that expects Christians to do more than attend services.
Reaching Beyond the Walls: Community Outreach
Outreach sits at the center of who Christian Outreach Center is. The church's heart is to serve people in practical, meaningful, and life-changing ways through outreach, care, prayer, and community connection, meeting real needs and revealing the love of Christ beyond the walls of the church.
Three streams organize this work. Serving Families provides practical support to families in need through food assistance, clothing, and resources. Supporting the Community creates lasting impact through partnerships and volunteer initiatives. Building Bridges connects people across differences to foster understanding, unity, and meaningful relationships. Each stream is designed to address real, everyday needs rather than offer one-off charity.
The philosophy behind the work is spelled out in the church's writing on kindness. Pastor J. teaches that kindness is not merely good behavior but a force that flows from the unseen realm into the visible world. Kindness shifts atmospheres. A simple encouraging word, a moment of understanding, or a helping hand can reset a mind, lift a spirit, or break a chain. The teaching frames kindness as something that reveals God without ever having to preach Him. People feel it, the church believes, and people change because of it.
The Circle of Care: Surrounding People with Practical Help
The church's signature outreach initiative is the Circle of Care Program. Its name describes its method: the program assesses the need and then surrounds each person with love, care, and practical help, like a circle closing around those who need it. The program exists, in the church's own words, to look beyond judgment and bias, choosing instead to focus on how lives can be transformed through compassion, opportunity, and consistent support.
At the moment, the Circle of Care's main focus is supporting single parents. Beyond that, the program names several populations it actively seeks to serve: single moms and dads, children in need of after-school care, families seeking daycare support, the homeless, those who are incarcerated, schools needing speech, reading, and math literacy programs, and individuals reentering society who need jobs and stability. The vision behind it is global and generational: a movement of multicultural kindness that embraces people from every background and every stage of life.
The church frames the Circle of Care as more than one mission. Even with a current focus on single parents, it is built to widen. The language is intentional: the name is a circle because the ministry assesses the need, then surrounds each person with love, care, and practical help. Pastor J.'s book The Power of Connection extends these same ideas into a longer teaching, arguing that the greatest need in many communities is not a lack of resources but a lack of meaningful relationships. The book proposes three priorities: connection before programs, service before self, and relationships before resources. People change when they feel seen, and lasting transformation, in this view, almost always runs through a person, not a program.
Words and Music for the Journey: Jamil King Ministries
Christian Outreach Center is also a publishing house. Under the banner of Jamil King Ministries, the church produces e-books, free downloads, and a catalog of original music singles, much of it sold or given away through the COC online shop. Together, the catalog tells the story of what the ministry cares about and how it tries to form the people who follow it.
The book titles reveal the range. The Power of Connection offers practical strategies for helping the marginalized and disenfranchised. The Black Church's Economic Challenge addresses stewardship, leadership, and the cost of avoiding hard financial conversations. Becoming A Stronger Leader is written for leaders in ministry, business, family, or team settings who want to grow in character and influence. From Survival to Stewardship: Reclaiming Kingdom Leadership calls the church back to Kingdom culture, identity, and responsibility. Kingdom Economics argues that inner discipline is the foundation of outer dominion. The Tetragrammaton and the Path to Wealth traces a Hebrew blueprint for prosperity rooted in alignment with God. Pneumatology: The Spirit of Man Institution studies the spirit, soul, and body as a triune reflection of God's nature. The Mystery in You: Christ Being Revealed guides readers into daily prayer and identity in Christ.
A separate collection of free downloads offers shorter teachings on topics like strongholds, identity, anxiety, the Kingdom of God, the church vision statement, and a New Life in Christ guide for new believers and teenagers. The bookstore also carries devotionals and thought pieces such as Do God Without a Mortgage (a call to build ministry without debt) and The Rise of AI and the Last Days (a reflection on spiritual awareness in a digital age).
Music has its own shelf. The COC catalog includes singles such as Family First (the COC anthem), Held It Together, Pull It Down, Don't Quit, Faith In Motion, Dance and Shout Praise, Radiant In This Place, God Is My Anchor, and Holy Ghost Turnaround. A Faith In The Mix 2026 collection gathers several singles together. The result is a worship and affirmation catalog built and released by the church itself, available to anyone who wants to take the music home.
Teaching That Equips for Real Life
The COC blog carries the same DNA as the books: long-form, scripture-rooted teaching aimed at practical life change. Recent posts include Power, Principles and A Plan, which walks readers through three steps (power from knowing God, principles from His wisdom, and a plan that turns belief into action), 25 Power Affirmations to Strengthen Your Faith, Mind and Life, and When Faith Gets Into Your Lifestyle, a meditation on the gap between belief and behavior that calls believers to integration rather than perfection.
Earlier pieces like When You Finally Start to Believe What You Say press the same point from another angle: that faith demands alignment between words and life, and that integrity is what gives words their weight. Another post, Your Standards Teach People How to Treat You, addresses relationships and personal boundaries. Expanding Your Contribution: From Presence to Impact reframes giving beyond money, into time, wisdom, relationships, gifts, and influence. Across all of it, the throughline is the same: a Christ-centered, Spirit-led life is meant to shape work, money, marriage, leadership, and the everyday choices that quietly define a person.
The church also offers a guide called New Life In Christ for new believers and teenagers, walking through what salvation means, who a person is now in Christ, and how to grow spiritually day by day. Visitors who want to dig deeper can subscribe to the YouTube channel for regular video teaching from Pastor J.
Becoming Part of the COC Family
Christian Outreach Center welcomes first-time visitors with a dedicated page that walks newcomers through what to expect and how to get connected. Anyone can submit a prayer request through the church's online form, and the church maintains an active prayer community that follows up on those requests. For those ready to make the church their home, a New Membership Profile is available online, and the church offers resources on baptism, altar call, and next steps. The Partner with Us page makes it easy for supporters to walk alongside the ministry in an ongoing way.
Generosity underwrites the work. Donations are accepted online through the church's secure giving page, and every gift supports children, families, outreach programs, and community care initiatives. Visitors can also support the ministry by picking up e-books or music singles from the online shop.
For those who live outside Fort Worth or cannot attend in person, COC offers several ways to stay connected: a Facebook page with regular updates, a YouTube channel of sermons and teachings, a blog of written encouragement, and a library of e-books and music singles. The Center's heart, in the words of its founders and their family, has always been to reach people where they are, with what they need, and to keep doing so from one generation to the next.