December 31st Watch Night:  Where to cross over into the new year

December 31^st  known as Watch Night is a solemn moment for Christians all over the world.

The significance of the transitional night is that it gives Christians the opportunity to take stock of their spiritual life and make preparations towards the new year with renewed hope.

With less than 48 hours to end 2023, a common happening is the preparation of various churches to round off the year with special vigil services.

On such occasions, mega churches across the country spend huge sums of money to mount giant billboards on highways and busy intersections across the cities to advertise their cross over services.

Attracting more worshipers to their various churches on the night requires a high level of creativity that could bring people from far and near to attend that service. Every member of the Christian community therefore puts a premium on it.

Over the years, the need to attract more worshipers has sparked a creativity competition among the mega churches who have started designing unique art works with new captions instead of the well known ’31st Watch Night’ service.

Some of the creative variations are; Cross Over, Jump Over, Transition, Change Over, Move Over and Escape.

The sizes of the billboards mounted in town depends on how big and rich the church is. Therefore, while the mega churches are displaying giant billboards, the medium and small  scale churches are making do with posters posted at any available space in town.

In an interview with the Founder and General Overseer of the True Light Chapel International, Apostle Gladys Obiri Takyi said mounting billboards on the streets is a strategy to win souls for Christ.

Apostle Obiri Takyi said section of Ghanaians chose to spend the night without going to church adding that the possibility of people following those billboards to church is large.

Apostle Gladys Obiri Takyi expects more people to worship with her in order to prepare them both spiritually and physically for the new year.