Graham was treasurer at Fleet Baptist Church in Hampshire when he joined a committee of Baptists, Anglicans, Methodists and United Reformed Church members to look into planting a church on a new housing estate just outside Fleet called Elvetham Heath.
The local council had approached them after Euan Calthorpe, who was selling the land on which the estate would be built, insisted that provision for a church should be included in the legal agreement.
"He did that because he was a Christian," explains Graham. "We believe that The Church on the Heath would not have come about without his foresight."
With a lot of local opposition to the housing estate the committee met for seven years to plan how an ecumenical church plant would operate, not knowing if Elvetham Heath would ever be built.
"We had about a seven year period which was vital to us because it enabled us to look at this project in depth, to do a lot of planning and also really get to know one another and work out any differences. It was only in the latter stages that we knew it was going to happen."
Building work started in 1999 and it was then that Graham and Jenny took their step of faith and decided that they would move onto the estate and become part of the new church. "My wife and I thought quite a lot about the project and the idea of not only having a Christian presence on the estate, but building a new community was something that we felt God was calling us to.
