WATCH: All-nights services have no spirituality – Lawrence Tetteh digs into history

The founder and President of Worldwide Miracle Outreach, Reverend Lawrence Tetteh, has stated that all-night church services do not have any spiritual connotations.

Speaking on Thursday, August 24, 2022, edition of GBC’s Breakfast Show, the renowned preacher revealed that all-night services in Ghana became part of the charismatic movement due to the unavailability of worship places for charismatic churches back in the day.

“You will be surprised a lot of people don’t understand why we do all night here today. All night has no spirituality. The reason why all night started was, in the early days of charismatism, Dr Mensah Otabil was using Baden Powel Hall. They rented it. Isaac Quaye was using Social Advance Hall. Almost everybody, including Action, they were renting halls and things. You don’t have a place to have a space to be able to do a church service.

“The only place you can do it is a school church building after they have closed, and it is only during Friday nights that you have availability. If you are fortunate to have a Methodist church, Presbyterian Church or Anglican church to use, the only time you can use it is in the Friday evenings, and that is how all nights began,” he explained.

He explained that the idea behind all-nights has unfortunately been misrepresented as having a spiritual meaning behind it.

“People think that all night is spirituality. In fact, the witches in the day are more dangerous than the witches at night. So today, you realise that a lot of people are into it. And I am not killing your spiritism, but sometimes it is just a religious thing people do, and they think it is only in the all-night…

“Trust me, I have stopped the all night because when you go to the all night, in the morning, I cannot go to the weddings, I cannot go to a funeral. And you will be surprised, you are sitting in your clerical collar, and you are dozing, and people are noticing you because you look irresponsible. Because you’ve come from an all night and Saturday is the day that you do all these things,” he said.

Rev. Tetteh emphasised the need for Christians to have a change of mindset about all-night services.

He noted that such services create a lot of inconveniences and also becomes a source of nuisance, especially when such services are held around residential areas.

“So there are a lot of things that we need the mindset to change so that we understand the reason why we do certain things. So today, if truly you have your own church building, then nothing prevents you from having a late evening programme, close late at least and go home instead,” he said.

All-night service is a big feature in Ghana’s charismatic space. However, such services have, over the years, attracted complaints of inconvenience to church members and residents who live close to church buildings.