AUBURN – For thousands of locals, their first glimpse of the new $2.5 million East Auburn Baptist Church will be accompanied by video screens, live music and laser lights.

It is the unveiling church leaders had hoped for.

The Park Avenue church will host its Christmas Spectacular show in the nearly 700-seat sanctuary on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, finishing up the holiday review one day before the church’s first worship services, planned for 9 and 11 a.m. Sunday.

“We don’t do the show every year, but when we learned that the church would be ready in December, it seemed natural,” said Randy Corey, the church’s director of arts and special events. “This would be a great way to cut our teeth.”

On Monday, subcontractors were still working on the electrical and heating systems. Side rooms sat packed with costumes, while ladders descended in the middle of hallways. As Corey and other show organizers tweaked the lighting and music for the extravagant show intro, synchronized to a Mannheim Steamroller song, a worker outside plowed the wide, 700-space parking lot.

Space is the new building’s greatest asset.

The old church, at the corner of Center and Turner streets, is small. The sanctuary has room for about 300 people and parking is difficult. So many people have been attending the church – about 1,200 on the average weekend – that shuttle buses and satellite parking lots were created and the number of weekly worship services was expanded to four.

When the Rev. Roger Cousineau came here in 1989, the weekly service drew about 60 people.

“The little country church that used to be here has exploded,” Cousineau said in an interview two years ago. About $1 million of the church’s cost has already been raised. The old church and adjacent buildings have yet to be sold.

Plans for the new church include more construction phases that could expand the building to cover 70,000 square feet, ultimately including a complex of offices and meeting rooms. The final phase would include a gathering space for more than 1,000 people.

Meanwhile, the church explosion continues.

Earlier this month, tickets for the Christmas show were given away on a Saturday morning at two Auburn shops. By 9:30, they were all gone.

“In 30 minutes, they were toast,” Corey said.

A few folks were angry to hear they were unable to get tickets. After all, it’s a bigger church. The difference is that past years had featured 12 or 13 performances.

With construction still finishing, five shows were all that could be scheduled this year, Corey said.

Contractors handed over the keys to the place Dec. 13. Until then, neither the crew of 15 nor the cast of 50 were able to work inside.

Over the weekend, they set the stage and tried learning their way around new sound and light equipment.

“It’s like we’re trying to land a 737 and we don’t know any of the controls,” Corey said. “We’re about as stressed as we can be.”

Yet, there’s little worry that the show will suffer. Folks began rehearsing at the old church at the start of November. The technical glitches that come with the new setting will be overcome.

Choreographer Alma-Lea Pace is confident that the shows – patterned after variety shows put together by Andy Williams and Perry Como – will dazzle.

The shows includes dancers, singers, drama and comedy.

“If we can bring the light to somebody sitting here, it’s worth it,” Pace said.