The Rock of Ages Festival

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The Rock of Ages was a week-long annual festival generally held in August for followers of The Way International and their guests. The primary purpose of this festival was the commissioning of "WOW Ambassadors", which were groups of individuals who volunteered for a year-long missionary assignment. Therefore, the Rock of Ages was also called the "annual WOW festival". Other purposes included ushering in the new "ministry year", which started after the festival, and revealing the new annual theme which was the topic of many teachings throughout the week and the focus of the upcoming year.

Generally preceding "the Rock" (as it was generally called) was the Way Corps Fellowship week. This week brought many of The Way's leaders together for biblical study and leadership training. It was also the week in which the final setup for the coming festival was completed.

During the festival, followers could camp out in tents or RVs on The Way International's campus just outside New Knoxville, Ohio, or they could stay in local hotels and commute to the festival. The Rock of Ages featured children's events, fellowship, biblical meetings, food and entertainment, and bible studies. Most events were held in large tents that were set up temporarily for the festival. Tickets cost approximately 40 USD.

Daily biblical teaching series such as "The Word Speaks" (early morning teachings by various leaders), the yearly theme teaching in the mid-morning and the evening teaching were a major part of the festival.

Various types of entertainment were offered. Way Productions (the performance department) sang songs before each meeting, Family Tables provided a forum for individuals or groups to share poems, verses of scripture, skits, songs, etc. in an informal setting. Truthadors were groups of performers that walked the festival performing for small groups in an ad-hoc manner.

Food was provided at various food and beverage tents and included Ice Cream, "Quick Quality" (small dishes such as chicken, pizza, farmer's market and burgers (called WOW Burgers), Full-Meal (larger meals with sides such as chimichangas, lasagna and cod),Tent Combo (similar to Quick Quality, but located in Tent City for the convenience of tent campers)and beverage stands.

During some years professional group meetings were held for education workers, farmers and gardeners, fine arts, inventors, legal, military, builders, writers/editors and musicians.

Children's events were available, including a Children's Fellowship in the morning, a children's zoo, fire engine and train rides, a water play area and playground.

Participants were expected to volunteer for various jobs during the week. Bless Patrol (general help, security service and information), Camping (specialized in tent raising, RV hookups, etc.), Parking, shuttle (drove tractors that pulled people-moving wagons to and from parking) were some of the jobs that these volunteers filled.

The festival was ended in 1995. One of the reasons cited by then-President L. Craig Martindale was sexual intercourse among teenagers throughout the event. For more information, see the main article.

Over the years the Rock of Ages evolved from a weekend celebration at the end of summer school in 1971 to a kind of "family reunion" for Way member/followers in the late seventies to mid eighties (Opening ceremonies featured songs like "It's Good to Be Home Again") to a forum for instruction in the nineties (Martindale described the final Rock of Ages in 1995 as a "class").