Paradise church breaks ground on new project

After 19 years, Keystone Evangelical Free Church in Paradise is about to undertake its first building project.

To commemorate the occasion, the church held a ground-breaking ceremony last week at the site across from the current facility at 6 Pequea Drive.

Although it was a cold, rainy morning, 200 members of the congregation attended the ceremony that included a special worship service, a few words from guest speakers. Members of the congregation even pitched in to pull a plow through the ground to signify the beginning of the project.

Senior pastor Keith Rohrer said a blueprint of the new building was painted on the ground and church members engaged in a "prayer walk" around the outline.

Rohrer said construction of the 33,000-square-foot facility will begin this month and is expected to be finished in January 2013.

The new facility will include a auditorium that will seat 600 people, education rooms, a fellowship hall and kitchen. Offices and much of the youth ministry, which has been a centerpiece of Keystone's work, will remain at the present church.

S.E. Smoker Inc. of Strasburg is the firm that has been chosen to design and build the church, which is expected to cost $3.7 million.

So far, more than $1 million has been pledged by the congregation of about 400 people.

Keystone has come a long way since its humble beginnings when members met in a bar at a banquet facility, Rohrer said. Two years later, a congregation of about 110 people took over the building formerly home to Paradise Baptist Church.

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Paradise church breaks ground on new project