North Carolina native Rev. Hines E. King was the pastor for the ongoing effort to establish a Congregational Church for Black residents of central Iowa in the early 1900s. It appears his ministerial career began in North Carolina as he is listed as a minister for a Congregational Church in Mooresville, about 30 miles north of Charlotte. In 1910 he was a pastor in Randolph County, about 25 miles south of Greensboro.

In January 1918 King served as pastor of the Union Congregational Church in Des Moines, Iowa and a later report noted he was a chaplain at Fort Des Moines. In the Iowa State Bystander December 27, 1918 it was reported that Asbury AME and Union Congregational had agreed to both hold services at the church at 10th and Park. He continued to serve the church through much of 1919, but by April 1920 a new pastor was there. King had become an AME pastor in South Dakota, as the Iowa State Bystander noted he was serving in Sioux Falls, Iowa and Huron, South Dakota.

In 1926 he had returned to North Carolina, as he ministered to a church in Raleigh. King would also serve as a pastor at First Methodist Church in Henderson in the 1940s. The January 21, 1952 Raleigh News & Observer reported his death. He is buried in Mount Hope Cemetery in Raleigh, North Carolina.