A Ghanian Pastor Reverend Lawrence Tetteh, founder and president of Worldwide Miracle Outreach, has stirred arguments on the spirituality and relevance of all night prayers by Christians and the the Church in modern times.
A statement by Reverend Lawrence Tetteh claims that all-night church services are not spiritual.
On the August 24, 2022, the preacher in a telecast, an episode of GBC’s Breakfast Show, said that the advent of all-night services in Ghana was a result of the lack of suitable worship space during the early days of the charismatic movement.
Explaining how all night prayers became a modern day practice in Ghana, the minister said, “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 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.
For Christians, Rev. Tetteh advised that there must be a paradigm shift about all-night services, saying, “When hosted near residential areas, such services are particularly inconvenient and disruptive.
“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.
Faulted
However, Rev. Tetteh had come under sharp criticisms by many of his admirers and respondents on Social Media.
One of them David Kodjo Frimpong wrote, “It is difficult for we the children to speak against our fathers but I plead with them not to shift the youth from the ancient landmarks at the applause of the anti christ !!!!
What we need now is not populist comments!!!! We need revivals in the body of Christ !!!
We do not need eloquence of speeches from men’s wisdom that will not set listeners to have opportunities for altar calls !!!
We do not need men and women who want to show glory to themselves but we need men who will lead men to give all the Glory to Christ !!!”
Quoting Luke 6:12, he said, “It was at this time that He went off to the mountain to pray, and He spent the whole night in prayer to God,” and Genesis 32:24, “Then Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him until daybreak.”
Other Bible texts quoted by Frimpong were 1 Samuel 15:11, “I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not carried out My commands.” And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night.
Psalm 55:17 “Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur,
And He will hear my voice.”
Psalm 119:62, “At midnight I shall rise to give thanks to You”
Another respondent, Kwasi Collins has this to say, “I disagree with you Man Of God. There is spirituality in All Night. Did you know how many are souls are delivered, healed and saved during all-night? There is spirituality in all-night. Even Jesus Christ our Savior and Model did it what about us? Your reasons are not on point sir.”
Yet another, Daniel Amoa, also wrote in favour of All Night as a spiritual exercise.
“All Night has spirituality but if his schedules did not allow him he could spend the time accordingly to save other needs and responsibilities. All night did not start in Ghana whereby our church leaders for the sake of place have to organize services during the night.
“All night started way back in the Bible and our Lord Jesus Christ himself had to pray through the night. All night is a direct interruption of organized activities of demons and satanic forces which plan during the night. All evil that happened during the day have their root cause in what plans the spiritual forces engaged in during the night,” he explained.
Backtrack
In another telecast, Rev. Lawrence Tetteh has denied his claims to have condemned all night services saying he believed in the spirituality of all-night prayer meetings and would not, on any occasion, condemn it.
Another report by www.ghanaweb.tv has it that the popular televangelist has backtracked on his earlier statement.
Clarifying same in the follow up interview, the pastor stated that the reports carried out by the media that the religious act has no spirituality were misinterpretations.
“Jesus fasted and prayed for 40 days and nights. Moses, Paul and many others held night vigils. I have personally been a great beneficiary of such prayer meetings and can never condemn it” he told Ghana News Agency.
According to him, the concern has been the organization of the event in residential areas which tends to disturb residents and attract some antipathy toward the Christian faith.
“My own father in the Lord, the late Rev. Akwasi Amoako, used to hold all-night meetings at Santase in Kumasi and Prophet Nanasei Opoku-Sarkodie held such meetings at Prampram. I have also organized all-night meetings at Trade Fair, La, to prevent disturbances,” he said.
“We must use all-night prayers to disturb others and create an environment for people to condemn Christianity, You can always be spiritual and not only during all-night meetings. I affirm to every man and woman that I believe in the spirituality of all-nights.”
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