Football and fundraising go hand in hand at Immanuel Lutheran

The Rev. William Yonker can hardly wait for the Super Bowl this weekend, though he's not a fan of either team that won the right to play in Tampa Bay.

No, Yonker's loyalties lie passionately with the Green Bay Packers, and everyone at East Dundee's Immanuel Lutheran Church knows this about their senior pastor.

Yonker is looking forward to Super Bowl Sunday because it's the day he can finally peel a pair of six-foot Chicago Bears stickers off his car.

Not your average, everyday bumper stickers, they run the length of the car doors on both sides of Yonker's red Dodge Charger. How did they get there? Chalk it up to the pastor's being a good sport and his willingness to do whatever it takes to help the church's day school.

Immanuel Lutheran School held a "Grease"-themed auction back in November, and Yonker showed up dressed as Danny Zuko, the character John Travolta played in the popular 1978 movie. Halfway through the event, Yonker revealed a Packers T-shirt under the Zuko get-up.

Just asking for trouble, I suppose.

One school dad said he would give $100 if he could have the Packerwear and a Cincinnati Bengals T-shirt from avid fan John Conrad, the school's fourth-grade teacher. The bidder promised to turn the shirts into floor mats for his son's class to wipe their feet. Ouch.

Another bidder immediately sweetened the pot. He'd give $1,000 for the two shirts and for both men to sport "Go Bears" stickers on their vehicles until the Super Bowl. That offer was accepted. That's what you get for staying true to yourself in Bears territory.

"I love being a pastor, but I have two avocations," Yonker said. "One is my 2007 Charger, which is a teenage boy car, and my Green Bay Packers. In one fell swoop, they knocked them both out for me for the last three months."

The stickers were made by church member Chris Wendt, owner of Carpentersville's FastSigns.

"It's some kind of a sticker that's supposed to come off easily without leaving a mark," Yonker said, admitting that every day he has to resist the urge to test that claim.

"We have stuck to the bargain," he said, adding that he's had a lot of fun with it. Conrad's red truck still sports the signs, too.

Yonker travels around the country speaking at youth gatherings about 20 weekends a year, and his Charger's new look has proved limiting.

"I can't drive in Wisconsin with the stickers on because I'm afraid they'll ruin my car," he said. "Every time I've gone out of state, I've taken my wife's van."

Global outreach: Mark Anderson, a former missionary to France, will headline next week's missions conference at Fox Valley Church in West Dundee. Titled "Being Missional in Your Global Neighborhood," the event will focus on outreach in local and worldwide communities, especially ministry to Muslims.

"How do we reach out to them more effectively and pray with them?" asks Joy Krispin, organizer of the weeklong event.

Anyone can attend to find the answer. Anderson, who works with International Teams, a worldwide ministry headquartered in Elgin, will conclude the conference by speaking Saturday, Feb. 7, at 6:30 p.m., and Sunday, Feb. 8, at the 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. worship services.

Among Saturday's talking points will be Judeo-Christian and Islamic world views and "folk Islam," a blending of the traditional Muslim religion with animism. On Sunday, Anderson will speak about how Christians can lead proactively missional lives.

"As we think about missions at our church, we're really trying to raise global awareness and help people understand that our global world is a lot bigger than we sometimes see it," Krispin said. "We want to see how all of our actions really impact people here as well as people around the world."

She said the conference goal is not to get everyone to sign up for overseas ministry, but for people to learn how they can participate from near or far.

"We really want to educate our congregation on what God is doing around the world and encourage them to more actively participate in that work," Krispin said, "whether it's locally here by praying for missionaries or supporting them financially, by going to visit them, going on a short-term trip, or by going out as missionaries themselves."

Krispin, who was born and raised as a missionary kid herself in Nigeria, is enthusiastic about what this conference offers. "Missions is very much a part of my heart and my perspective," she said. "Not just missions, but having a wider and more global perspective on the world."

Fox Valley is an Evangelical Free Church of America congregation located on Huntley Road just west of Randall Road.

• "In the Spirit" covers churches and synagogues in the Fox Valley area; contact cmchojnacki@yahoo.com to submit information or ideas for upcoming columns.