Mosaic Mennonites

Missional - Intercultural - Formational

Gary Alloway

“Don’t be helpful. Be curious.”

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by Gary Alloway

“Don’t be helpful. Be curious.” When I first read those words in a book by Tim Soerens, they immediately annoyed me. After all, what could be wrong with being helpful? 

Two years ago, Tony moved to my block and Tony was a mess. He and his wife would get in blowout screaming matches on the sidewalk. He would sit in his car at 2 am, blasting his music. He was prone to outbursts at his kids, who are the same age as our kids. My attempts to fix, intervene, and correct all went poorly. Until one day, I decided to take a cold beverage over to Tony’s house and kick it.   

I found out that Tony had grown up in a very under-resourced neighborhood in Philadelphia and gotten pulled into violence as a teenager. Bristol was his way out. I found out he sat in his car at 2 am as an escape, and was blissfully unaware of how loud his music was. I found out he wanted nothing more than a quiet life–to work, to raise his kids well, and to have his home be a place of peace. 

And after that conversation, things changed. Whatever help we offered was no longer in order to fix Tony or to be his social worker. Now we were neighbors, friends, and parents just trying to raise our kids well. We were in it together. And Tony started showing his generous side. He cut our grass. He dropped off food. He gave me a pair of shoes. And I helped him plant flowers on his front porch for the first time in his life. We walk Tony’s kids to school every morning. We sneak them as much healthy food as we can. 

It’s not so much that being helpful is wrong. But when it’s our first instinct, it usually leads to standing over the other person, rather than standing next to them. They become our client or our project, rather than our brother or sister. Not only does this belittle the other person, but we also miss out on unlikely friendships that have a way of changing us deeply.  

I can’t fix Tony. But being his friend is pretty fun. Curiosity opens the way to friendship. And curiosity opens space for the true healer of his soul to work. Not me, but Jesus.   

So that’s my commission to you. Let that little phrase annoy you. “Don’t be helpful.  Be curious.” 

Let it change your posture. Let it create space for God to work. You just might end up friends with Tony. 

Gary Alloway

Gary Alloway is a Leadership Minister for Mosaic Conference. Gary is also a pastor and church planter of Redemption Church of Bristol (PA), which is a Mosaic Partner in Ministry and was founded in 2009. Gary serves with his wife, Susan, and his children, Augie (9) and Rosey (7), who deeply love pretzel dogs from the Bristol Amish Market. Gary has a passion for Philadelphia sports, crossword puzzles, and for seeing broken people connect to the amazing love of God. 

Mosaic values two-way communication and encourages our constituents to respond with feedback, questions, or encouragement. To contact Gary Alloway, please email galloway@mosaicmennonites.org.

Helping People Unlock the “Jesus-version” of Themselves

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by Jennifer Svetlik

Gary Alloway began serving on staff for Mosaic Conference in September 2024 as a Leadership Minister for four congregations (Alpha (NJ), Fairfield (PA), Spring Mount (PA), and Refuge (online), and providing accompaniment to Summit Street (Beatrice, NE; a Western District congregation). He has been licensed with Mosaic since 2022 and is the founding pastor of Redemption Church of Bristol, PA, a ministry partner of Mosaic Conference.  

Redemption Church is a neighborhood church and mission in Bristol Borough which Alloway and his wife Susan founded in 2009. Since its founding, Redemption has taken part in the revitalization of Bristol, helping found a street festival, coffee shop, and a nonprofit organization. However, the larger goal is simply to help people love God, love their neighbor, and smell like Jesus wherever they go. Alloway’s role there involves everything from teaching on Sundays to helping Bristol have healthy trees.  

Gary and his wife Susan enjoying fall.

As the number of Mosaic congregations and partners continues to grow, and with two leadership ministers retired, Alloway was asked to consider becoming a Leadership Minister. Leadership Ministers provide leadership accompaniment and counsel to congregations and credentialed leaders within the conference.  

“I’ve been a part of Mosaic Conference for three years and I want to help it live up to its name – a place where each part is beautiful on its own, yet also part of a greater whole!” Alloway shares, reflecting on what led him to say yes to serving Mosaic in this way.

“My greatest joy is seeing people find their worth and their calling in Christ, helping them unlock the ‘Jesus-version’ of themselves,” Alloway shares. “When people and organizations find that and live into that, they come alive. I look forward to helping leaders and congregations to do so.” Alloway added, “I’m just getting started. The first task is just to hear where God has already been at work in these contexts.” 

Alloway is originally from Paoli, PA. He loves crossword puzzles and often winds down with the New York Times Sunday crossword at the end of the day. 

He loves spending time with his family, going on adventures, discussing Philadelphia sports, and reading long historical novels. 

Gary with his wife Susan and children Augie and Rosey at the beach.

Jennifer Svetlik

Jennifer is Editor & Development Coordinator for Mosaic. She grew up near Houston, TX and spent a decade living in intentional community in Washington DC, before moving to Lansdale, PA with her spouse, Sheldon Good. She is a graduate of the University of Texas and Washington Theological Seminary. She serves as Children’s Faith Formation Director at Salford Mennonite (Harleysville, PA). Jenn has two elementary-school-aged children and loves biking, camping, gardening, and vermicomposting with her family. 

Naked Ash Wednesday 

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by Gary Alloway

Over the past two years, Redemption (our church) has hosted a book club at the local brewery. We have discussed everything from Flannery O’Conner to Walter Wink, trying to engage with books that give people wider perspectives on faith. And since our local brewery is called Naked Brewery, book club is affectionately known as Naked Book Club (*clothes required*).   

Part of the reason the book club has worked is because we have been hosted by Crystal the Bartender. Crystal loves us. Crystal is for us. Crystal has become a personal friend. Crystal is our best evangelist for the book club. Crystal wouldn’t call herself a Christian, but she is our person of peace, that weird person Jesus speaks about in Luke 10, who will apparently receive you indefinitely when you go out on mission.  

So when Ash Wednesday came around this year and we had a scheduling conflict at our church building, we asked Crystal if we could have the service at the brewery. She got excited about it and said “Sure!” And thus was born the first ever Naked Ash Wednesday.   

Crystal, a bartender at Naked Brewery, and a “person of peace” for Redemption Church of Bristol. Photos provided by Gary Alloway.

It should be said, Naked Brewery is in a 19th-century building in Bristol and like many old Bristol buildings, the basement is about as spooky as can be. Ceilings are low, river stones protrude from the walls, weird nooks lead you into darkened corners. It is a perfect place for an Ash Wednesday service. It is a perfect place to remember your mortality. We invited people to come early for a last beer before Lent. And then we remembered that we have come from dust and to dust we shall return. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. 

Participants in the Naked Ash Wednesday service led by Redemption Church of Bristol, at the Naked Brewery.
Participants in the Naked Ash Wednesday service led by Redemption Church of Bristol, at the Naked Brewery.
Participants in the Naked Ash Wednesday service led by Redemption Church of Bristol, at the Naked Brewery.

As we emerged from the basement, Crystal asked, “Do you have any ashes left? You might need to get everyone up here?” We gave ashes to a few people and probably could have given them to more. Honestly, our sheepishness was more the limitation than any sort of hostility to our presence there. It seems that the longstanding symbols of the church still have meaning and resonance in an age of secularism.

As we packed up, Crystal was anxious to know how the service went and excited to hear of its success. And then she gave us another indefinite invitation: “What about next year? You guys want to do it again? Should we book this as an annual tradition?” 

Jesus tells us that when we find the person of peace, don’t move around. Stay put and be present to the work of God in that place. So it sounds like we are on the hook for next year.  It sounds like this was the first of many Naked Ash Wednesdays.   

Gary Alloway

Gary Alloway is a pastor and church planter of Redemption Church of Bristol (PA), which is a Mosaic Partner in Ministry and was founded in 2009.  Gary serves with his wife, Susan, and his children, Augie (9) and Rosey (7), who deeply love pretzel dogs from the Bristol Amish Market.  Gary has a passion for Philadelphia sports, crossword puzzles, and for seeing broken people connect to the amazing love of God. 

My Narrative of Inadequacy, Flipped Upside Down

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by Gary Alloway

Growing up, I was a kid who was a good at everything but never excelled at any one thing. I was a committed athlete, but never a star. I was a good student, but there were always a few students above me. I had friends, but others were more charismatic. Since I never had my own “thing,” I always saw this as a weakness in myself.  

When I was 16, God got a hold of my life, and I chose to follow Jesus. At age 18, in a moment of doubt and desperation, I heard God speak the words, “Serve me.” I consider those two moments to be my points of calling. I gave my life to serving God and helping broken people find Jesus.

And yet, for much of my young adulthood, I wandered. I wandered intellectually, trying to find how my beliefs held together. I wandered theologically, exploring everything from evangelicalism to Orthodoxy. I wandered between non-profit ministry and pursuing an academic career, and somewhere in the midst of this, I got a business degree.

At age 24, I was in seminary and not sure what I was doing with my life. I still felt like I was good at a little bit of everything but was not excelling at any one thing.  

One day, God turned this narrative on its head. I was talking with an old friend, and a light came on. Jesus took the narrative of inadequacy and said to me, “You are exactly who I need you to be.”  

Suddenly, I looked again at pastoral ministry and realized that this is a job that requires being good at a little bit of everything rather than being good at one particular thing, especially in the local church. What other job requires public speaking, counseling, budgeting, and knowing the basics of building repair? What other job changes so drastically from day to day … I may be planning a liturgy at one moment and planning a community meal in the next. What other job provides new challenges in every season, often ones that I could never foresee?  

I attended an academic seminary. I remember a professor, who had served the church for many years, say, “If you really want to use your brain, go into pastoral ministry, not academics.” He was right. For someone whose brain likes to wander in a million directions, pastoral ministry never runs out of things to think about. For someone who gets bored easily, pastoral ministry provides something new in every season. For someone who is good at a little bit of everything, but fails to have a specialty, pastoral ministry is a perfect fit.  

I often get exhausted by the ever-changing, never-settled state of the local church. But if church work ever gets boring, then I will probably be ready to move on. So, today I celebrate the local church, with all its chaos and challenges, and am thankful God made me just as I am. 

Gary Alloway

Gary Alloway is a pastor and church planter of Redemption Church of Bristol (PA), which is a Mosaic Partner in Ministry and was founded in 2009.  Gary serves with his wife, Susan, and his children, Augie (9) and Rosey (7), who deeply love pretzel dogs from the Bristol Amish Market.  Gary has a passion for Philadelphia sports, crossword puzzles, and for seeing broken people connect to the amazing love of God.