Apparently, spiritual and religious life was at a low ebb in the late 1860s in East Grinstead. High Anglicanism was surviving in the form of the Sisters of Mercy at St. Margaret's, founded by the Rev. Neale. There had been some unpleasantness at Zion Chapel. The Rev. David Davies (b.c. 1820), a Welshman from Cay in Carmarthenshire, had been appointed on 27 March 1859 without the church members being consulted and the church had been without a pastor for a considerable period after his departure in or after 1866. Its congregation had dwindled. The Book of Common Prayer was still in use there. The Rocks Chapel still existed, "little more than a cottage adapted for public worship" though it was now in the hands of the Primitive Methodists who supplied occasional preachers from long distances but most often there was no preacher. Owing to inadequate lighting, evensong at St. Swithun's parish church was held at 3.00 p.m. in the winter and Benjamin estimated that 100 worshippers in the entire town on a Sunday evening at that time of year would be a liberal estimate.

This declining state of affairs was presumably the trigger which caused the idea to form in Benjamin's mind of the creation of a Congregational church in East Grinstead, something he had not previously considered, hence his concentraton on the spiritual life of Ashurst Wood.

So, at the end of the 1860s, in this attempt to revitalise the religious life of the town, Benjamin decided that East Grinstead needed what Ashurst Wood had been given 10 years earlier: a new Congregational church. He sought and found a suitable site on the right hand site of Moat Road on the corner with London Road. Edward Steer, who owned it and had developed houses on the other side of Moat Road, was anxious that the respectability of the area should not be diminished by the building of a public house on this site and happily fell in with Benjamin's plan. The two plots making up the site were bought in 1868 for £192 and £115 respectively. Money was raised from his friends in Tunbridge Wells and elsewhere and a contract of £1000 to build the new church was agreed.

Meanwhile, at Zion Countess of Huntingdon's Chapel, the Rev. Eustace E. Long (d. 1915), a student from Cheshunt College, became pastor there on 15 August 1869 and remained in this post until 28 January 1877. He was eagerly welcomed by Mr SLIGHT, despite the latter's independent plans for Moat, and the two men became friends.