The History of Rock the World

Rock the World is an independent Christian ministry with roots in the Evangelical stream of the Anglican tradition. It is a 501(c)(3) founded by the Rev. Whis Hays on August 11, 1989. With a 14-year track record of leading successful student ministries in California, Connecticut, and Virginia, Whis felt God’s call to maximize the effectiveness of the Church in ministry with students and youth, especially in evangelism, discipleship, and leadership development with students middle school through college age.

The Josiah Project was Rock the World’s first major program, launched in May of 1990. This innovative program is now in its thirteenth year of training collegians for Christian leadership. More than 95% of the graduates of the Josiah Project are still actively engaged in ministry leadership today, many of them more than a decade after their formal participation in Josiah Project!

Our second major program is our Student Ministry Professionals Program. Our first students enrolled in the Fall of 1991.

Our third core training program is Epicenter. This program, lunched in the fall of 2004, is a full year program for young adults who want to learn to ignite spiritual chain reactions.

Over the years, graduates and students from these programs began working together for Kingdom purposes, engaging in collaborative ministries of mission, evangelism, and discipleship. This now includes national and regional events that focus on evangelism, worship, discipleship and missions, and dynamic weekend training events that empower churches and their leaders to reach young people for Jesus. We've also become a ministry incubator, offering our graduates a stable platform for incubating new ministries. These currently include an equipping ministry for volunteers in church-based youth ministry; an outreach to young unbelievers in limited-access countries overseas, and a free summer camp for disadvantaged young people near our headquarters in Ambridge, PA -- and as Rock the World's young leaders listen to God and work together, more ministries like these are coming to birth!

It gradually became clear that our proactive network of young Christian leaders was no accident, it was God’s design. Rock the World has grown into a collaborative network of young leaders trained to call young people middle school through college age to follow Jesus, grow in knowledge and love of God, serve in the power of the Holy Spirit, and impact the world for the Kingdom of God. This is how we are multiplying young Christian leaders.

We can fulfill Jesus' Great Commission in the opening years of this millennium. We must reach young people and raise up young leaders everywhere if we want to reach that goal. We believe that a movement of young people reaching young people is a crucial element in how God will make it happen!