Bishop John T. Coats II, a Project 21 ambassador from Columbus, Ohio, is an ordained elder in the Church of God In Christ, Senior Pastor of the Metropolitan Church, and Superintendent of the Ohio West Capital District.
Bishop Coats serves as the Executive Secretary of the Ohio West Jurisdiction of the Church of God In Christ, Inc., a position he has maintained for nearly 15 years. He serves as the Ecclesiastical Dean of the Word International Fellowship, where he establishes protocol for member churches in England, France, Ireland, India, United Arab Emirates and Africa.
In January 2016, Bishop Coats was elected President of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Columbus and Vicinity (IMA Columbus), Central Ohio’s oldest and longest continuously serving ministerial alliance. Bishop Coats also serves as Vice President of the Ohio IMA. Bishop Coats was consecrated into the episcopacy with full Apostolic Succession in the Lord’s Church on May 31, 2024 at the hand of Metropolitan Archbishop D. James Washington, Church Alive Ministries International and The Gathering.
Bishop Coats is the Chairman of the Black Caucus of Central Ohio, a community-based organization that teaches government civics and examines a multiplicity of issues and their direct and indirect impact on the black community. Bishop Coats was honored to lead the Ohio Coalition of Concerned Black Citizens (OCCBC) for 18 years. OCCBC conducted political screenings and addressed systemic problems by applying political solutions.
As a community activist, Bishop Coats helped construct several pieces of sample legislation which have become state or local law, including Ohio’s civil rights and anti-discrimination laws and Columbus’s anti-ethnic-intimidation law, considered the strongest law of its type in America.
Bishop Coats has worked in professional media for over twenty years as marketing specialist at the Columbus Radio Group and as an independent media consultant, specializing in retail business point of purchase and political advertisement.
Bishop Coats is a member of several boards and advisory boards, including the Ohio Governor’s Evangelical Advisory Council, Columbus Association of Black Journalists, Lifeline of Ohio African American Advisory Council and the Ohio Secretary of State’s Diversity Empowerment Council. He is the immediate past 2nd Vice President and a current Executive Committee member of the Columbus Branch NAACP.
In December 2024, Bishop Coats was appointed by Ohio Governor Mike DeWine to the Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday Commission. He is also a past member of the White House Faith Leaders Advisory Council.
Bishop Coats has been a guest on several television and radio programs, including creating and hosting The John Coats Show on www.talktainmentradio.com, and weekly appearances on Urban One TV’s Khari Free At Last.
Bishop Coats attended Capital University and Trinity Lutheran Seminary. He is married to Ramona R. Reyes, an elected Member of the Columbus Board of Education, and he is the proud father of Carrington M. Coats, a senior at Ohio State University.