When asked how the building Cross Keys Fellowship Church dedicated Sunday would affect the community, the Rev. Allen Joines went outside.

"It's not about in here," the pastor said shortly after a ceremony to mark the church's new era on Berlin Road, about a mile from New Oxford High School, which he attended.

Standing at the door to the parking lot, he gestured beyond the pavement to a line of trees at least 200 yards away.

"This is it," Joines said, waving his hand toward the 47-acre property stretching to Route 94. "We want to give the youth a place to go, to make a difference.

"That's why we're only a mile from the school."

Steve DiBiase, the church's full-time youth pastor, said plans call for a diverse recreational paradise: soccer fields, baseball and softball diamonds, a climbing tower, a zip line that leads to an obstacle course, a regulation-size paintball course and a Frisbee golf course.

The 15,000-square-foot, $2.5 million building, which will hold its first church service next Sunday, is a stepping stone toward the larger goal of doing all that can be done for the New Oxford-area community, Joines said.

It took seven months to complete and it is a far cry from the congregation's former digs. The old 8,000-square-foot building on Little Avenue was built about 1970.

"It was very traditional," Joines said, noting it had a sanctuary and basement into which the roughly 275 church members packed for services and meetings.

"This one is more

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contemporary. But notice we have the bare metal ceiling," he said, motioning toward the sanctuary's exposed ceiling. "This was built as a multipurpose facility. It was just to get us here."

Plans also call for a 750- to 800-seat sanctuary on Berlin Road, as well as a family center on Route 94.

If you go

What: First church service in the new Cross Keys Fellowship Church

When: 10:15 a.m. Sunday

Where: 785 Berlin Road, New Oxford