Irvin Agusta Hinmon in 1971. Hinmon was a member of Ephesus Pentecostal Church in Salem, NJ when he answered the call to outreach ministry. Shortly after his brother who struggled with drug addiction died, Rev. Hinmon knew God wanted him to pursue all men with the same compassion and determination. Training for outreach ministry began when Rev. Hinmon went to Harlem, NY to be mentored under the tu
telage of Rev. Jesse Winley, Pastor of Soul Saving Station on 124th St and St. Nicholas Aves. He stayed in Harlem preaching in the Homeless ministry program where they feed the homeless and preached to them daily. Hinmon then returned back to Salem, NJ and prepared to begin his own outreach ministry. With warnings of danger and death, Rev. Hinmon took his two daughters and his wife to PennsGrove, NJ where he held street services on Walnut St. This was the most notoriously dangerous street in Salem County. A few brave friends attended the services but most refused to venture out to participate in the street meetings. Bishop Freddy Washington, a teenager at the time, provided music on the piano which was hoisted up on the back of a bread truck singing with Rev. Irvin Hinmon's daughters. Hinmon was threatened by the bar owner across the street and sometimes it was rough with bottles being thrown but Rev. Hinmon preached with a voice of thunder challenging people to realize how much God loved them. The building that would become Soul Saving Center on Walnut St. had been a bar until someone was murdered and then it was closed down. Hinmon bought the building and he and his friends transformed it into a church, building the pulpit and the altar with money he made as a barber. The building in Pennsgrove, NJ burned down in the mid 90's and Rev. Hinmon had church in a community building until the synagogue in Salem, NJ became available for purchase. Hinmon received financial help from Reggie White, Minister of Defense for the Philadelphia Eagles and the Greenbay Packers. Hinmon went home to be with the Lord on March 3, 2015 and the mantle has fallen on his daughter Mikki Hinmon Kornegay who feels the strong call of the Lord to minister in the area of outreach to the community of Salem. Mikki Hinmon Kornegay is a graduate of Zion Bible College, now known as Northpoint Bible College and has served on the mission field in Bosnia (twice), Swaziland, Rome and Croatia. Soul Saving Center is getting back to it's roots as the ministry that reaches out to the community at large. It is important to add that as Rev. Hinmon preached up and down the east coast in the streets, he always seemed to set his street services up next to a bar....today, every bar he has ever preached next to, no longer exists!
