Illinois District Pastors, Youth Leaders, and other Youth Workers,
Greetings!
DCL – District Celebrate Life – is ON, here at the Illinois District! It will be held at the Roxana Church of
the Nazarene, 500 North Central Avenue in Roxana, on March 10-11. Check-in starts at 6:00 pm on
March 10, and we begin the event at 7:30 pm. Everyone should eat dinner on their own before 7:30.
We are pursuing block rates at nearby hotels, and will follow-up with you on what we find.
We’re approaching Celebrate Life this year as a three-phase event:
Phase 1 – starts now, and includes filling out registration forms, sending those in with
registration fees, practicing for your events, getting advance scores for bowling or golf, etc.
Phase 1 is all the preparation that happens at the local level – or zone or sectional levels – in
advance of DCL at Roxana.
Phase 2 – is DCL at Roxana on March 10-11.
Phase 3 – is Field Celebrate Life at Olivet Nazarene University on May 11-13, along with
everything after DCL that leads up to it.
So – we’re in Phase 1 from now until DCL, in Phase 2 at DCL, and in Phase 3 from DCL up until CL at
Olivet.
Registration forms for both Students and Sponsors are attached with this letter. These must be filled
out in full, and sent with registration fees to Jamie Toolen – as noted on the forms. The registration
fees cover the costs to run the event, Saturday lunch for everyone, and a DCL 2023 T-Shirt.
Students from grades 6 to 12 are the main focus of DCL, and we have a wide range of events in which
they can participate. Eligibility will be determined by the local church. Some churches will view this as
being primarily for their established, regular teens. Other churches will view this as an outreach
opportunity. We will not, as a district, establish church attendance requirements for participants. If
someone registers from your church – we will honor that and allow your church to decide what makes
them eligible.
Sponsors are to be age 21 or older.
DCL activities are varied. Students should wear appropriate attire for the events in which they
participate, and this attire should be appropriately modest for a church activity. Clothing that matches
uniforms for a school team of the same sport is a safe option.
Our district is taking a different approach on the team sports this year – Men’s and Women’s Volleyball
and Basketball, and Coed Dodgeball. We will have a round robin tournament and will not officially
crown our champions. Instead, we will focus on the fun, on everybody on each team getting playing
time, and on selection of our district teams in each event. Most teams will be created by random draw.
Students will sign up for the sport and will be assigned a team at DCL. Church youth leaders (or
pastors) CAN choose to register a church team in any or all categories. They must signify so on the
registration form and submit a team roster. A church cannot have more than one team in each
category – additional athletes from the church should be in the random draw. An exception to this is
that partners should be established in advance for Coed Doubles in Table Tennis, this will be in a
bracketed tournament, and the winning pair will represent our district at Olivet. These partners can be
from different churches.
Students signing up for basketball or volleyball should mark their preference for front-court/front row or
back-court/back row or either. We will attempt to balance all random draw teams evenly across these
breakdowns. We need everyone’s T-Shirt size.
We’ll have more information in the near future – this letter and the registration forms will get you
started. Pay careful attention to due dates for forms, and to registration fees.
We look forward to seeing you, and to having a great event together!
In Christ,
Rev. Ben Alexander, Illinois District NYI President
Rev. Jeremy Martin, Illinois District NYI Vice President
