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Global Mission Church leaders presented their case Thursday for building a new church on the border of Frederick and Montgomery counties, but area residents were not satisfied.

The residents, mostly from Montgomery County, compared the church to commercialized religion, and said that the 138,000-square-foot church would not fit in with the countryside near Sugarloaf Mountain.

"I think the whole area around Sugarloaf is sacred ground," said Douglas Pierce of Dickerson in Frederick County. He said the idea of building the large church there was "absurd." He said if Frederick County really wanted a large structure to be built there, it should be a bigger employer.

"If we're going to build something there, let's build a business that will generate money for many people, not a few church seniors," he said.

Mike Oberdorfer, of Dickerson in Montgomery County, said he was disappointed that the church had broken up information into various tables Thursday detailing aspects of the project and church. He said this made it impossible for residents to get complete answers to questions, and they had to get bounced from one expert to another.

"They've Balkanized the information," he said.

Other residents were concerned that the church, which expects to draw between 100 and 200 people to each of its Wednesday and Sunday services, would create gridlock on a rural road. The church is at the southern border of Frederick County, west of Interstate 270. Its entrance would be on Md. Route 109 near Peach Tree Road, which is in Montgomery County's Agricultural Reserve, a 93,000-acre region of upper Montgomery where development is limited.

Mike Nalepa, a traffic engineer for the project, said required traffic studies of Route 109 near the site of the church and Md. Route 355 at the intersection with Fire Tower Road and Md. Route 75, which some of the congregation might use to reach the church. Frederick required contributions toward an account for improvements for the intersection of Route 355 and Fire Tower Road, he said.

Nalepa said the studies showed traffic from the church would not create gridlock on Route 109.

The church was not required to study the impact of traffic on the I-270 interchange at Route 109, Nalepa said.

Global Mission Church, a predominantly Korean congregation affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention, already has a location at 13421 Georgia Ave. in Silver Spring. However, leaders said the church's congregation had migrated to northwestern Montgomery County and southeastern Frederick County, and the church is merely following its flock.

Senior Pastor Dennis Kim said church members were eager to find a way to work with the community and address their concerns in the construction of the church.

"We want to think together to build up the community," he said.

Technical director Man-Bae Kim said the church would be bringing a lot of services to Frederick County.

Youth Pastor James Choi said some of the community service the church does includes work with local homeless shelters, food pantries, and anti-drug education for children. He said this would continue if the church builds in Frederick County.

Man-Bae Kim also said that the church was working with state and local governments in both Frederick and Montgomery Counties to ensure that the environmental and traffic impacts of the church would be mitigated.

"We are doing 100 percent what the government is asking," he said.

Still others felt that the atmosphere of the open house, held at the Holiday Inn Conference Center in Frederick and catered with hors d'oeuvres and a live string ensemble, was more like a marketing ploy, and less an informational meeting about the nature of the project.

"It's like a party," said Ellen Kreis, who lives in Dickerson on the Frederick County side.

"I feel like they're trying to get me to join [the church]."