Pastor Norval Says Goodbye to the Cary and Fox River Grove For Now

“Welcome to Cary United Methodist Church, the church on the hill, the church that cannot be hidden” 

That was the joyful greeting Reverend Dr. Norval Brown often invoked at the beginning of Sunday services before moving onto semi-retirement this spring.

Pastor Norval gave his last service on June 21 and is now serving quarter time in Lansing, IL after leading the Cary and Fox River Grove churches for six joyful years with his wife, Andrea.

I sat down with him in his old office which had already been moved into by his successor, Reverend Dr. Charles Yoon. One of very few remaining personal effects in the room was a gift that had just arrived: A personalized Milwaukee Brewers jersey. 

The gift honored a big choice he made in his final year as an undergrad at the University of Chicago. He turned down a tryout with the MLB team, having the following conversation with his shocked coach:

“Oh Really?!’

“Yes” 

“Well thanks Coach!”

“Whadya say?’

“No, thanks”

In his mind this was not the sacrifice that many others might see it as. He explained that his path had been set a long time ago and he came to the university with the express goal of going into seminary immediately after. 

“Besides that,” he added “You play basketball, you play baseball in high school and college. Do you know what they call it when they PAY you to do it?...Coach, that’s called work. I don’t wanna do that kinda work”

A Planned Exit

“When I came in 2020, I was very very clear that this was gonna be my last stop” His church sets a mandatory retirement age of 73 and often limits a pastor’s time to a few years. 

Methodist founder John Wesley believed a congregation was better served by a series of itinerant preachers. He wrote that “[One] preacher has one talent, that another; no one whom I ever yet knew has all the talents which are needful"

Brown echoed this statement in our interview

 “At any given point in a church's life they need a pastor with a particular skillset. So the idea is to try to find a pastor with the skillset that will match the needs of the congregation. As those needs are met there are other needs that are exposed and it's a wonderful, wonderful system…when it works”

Brown’s ‘particular set of skills” include a talent for bringing out the humanity in what can be very dry writings by and about ancient people.

Finding the Familiar in the Biblical 

He doesn't do it by trying to make it ‘relevant for today’ in the desperate mode of too many churches and pastors that can charitably be called ‘edgy’ 

Instead he connects by evoking the universal emotions experienced by his congregations and those long ago people. I had the privilege of participating in this year’s Good Friday service featuring five intimate monologues.

The perspectives of people present at the crucifixion sharpened the historical and distant into personal expressions of grief and self-discovery. 

In that same vein, Brown described to me a depiction of the Last Supper that hung in a former church that was far from how Da Vinci painted it. 

“It is pure chaos. There were men and women, but then there were children, there were animals running around the room. And yes, while it is supposed to be this solemn occasion, sometimes the solemnity must surrender itself to family dynamics” 

The men AND women in the Upper Room

The notable inclusion of women in the group of people breaking bread and drinking wine with Jesus is one that Pastor Brown consistently made. 

That's a welcome inclusion to those more used to religious chauvinism. “I do not believe that is truly the model by which God is calling us to live” 

"An Open Loving and Safe Environment” 

The overall goal of inclusion is long standing within the Methodist church. They adopted the slogan “Open hearts. Open Minds. Open Doors” in 2001.

Brown bemoaned that “churches are often a reflection of society rather than agents for change” and that despite the door being officially open and the welcome mat officially put out, “there are churches who don't want a pastor who's a woman, they don't want a pastor of color, they don't want a pastor who's a member of the LGBTQ community” 

Brown's tenure here naturally focused on embodying the church mission statement which includes that line about creating an “open, loving and safe environment” 

On one Sunday this year he drew attention to the ideal of that safe environment. He contrasted it with churches that were emptier that day because congregants were afraid of being taken by 

ICE. 

The church hosted “Life Out Loud: Voices of Pride” this April. The interactive presentation took over the usual Sunday morning service and used the framing device of a magical glowing rainbow book found in a thrift store to begin Q&As with the congregation and read essays from pivotal points of gay history.

The Skill Set of Being the Other?

And then there’s the inclusion of…himself “I’ve been in predominantly white churches since 1998” 

When asked why that might be he concluded, “There is a part of that sometimes thinks that certain pastors are just identified to do cross-racial appointments for one reason or another and….I am becoming ok with that” 

He is curious, he admits, as to why church leadership doesn’t make those cross-racial appointments in the other direction as well. For instance, he is succeeded by Korean-born Rev Dr Yoon, whose father was an army chaplain back in South Korea.

“We never do the reverse of putting white pastors in any of our ethnic churches and I think if we're truly going to be the church we have to do that kind of appointment,” he advised before letting out a good-natured chuckle, saying, “But after 49 years as a United Methodist pastor I have come to the realization that there are some questions they just aren't going to ask me!” 

Leading During Lockdown 

Brown started in July 2020 when social distancing restricted attendance to only 10 people in the sanctuary. He was very grateful that the Cary church already had, as he said “the IT stuff” in place.

 Since he arrived in the summer, they were also able to utilize the cozy, contemplative outdoor ‘sanctuary’ in the trees to meet small groups of people safely. “I joked that they would all have to introduce themselves again when this was all over because they’d know who I am but I’d only know them from here up” 

Skating Into a New Chapter

When asked why his retirement bunch in the church’s Fellowship Hall was decorated like a roller rink he enthused that he was going to learn to roller skate. 

As a kid in rural Maryland he didn’t have a chance to go to any rinks. “As a high school and college athlete, the coaches really frowned on me rollerskating,” he laughed. 

He plans to take lessons at a rink near his home in Homewood IL “I figure if I take lessons the chances of falling and hurting myself might be a little less”

In his time off of tiny wheels he will be serving a quarter time at Lansing First United Methodist Church, a much closer congregation to Homewood which is 66 miles from Cary. 

“The blessing for them, I hope, and the blessing for me is it’s a congregation with which I am familiar. I’ve been in and out of that church for about the last 20 years or so”

Pastor Norval, as he is more often called than Reverend Brown (although he does like to joke around the holidays that he has a soft spot for “Winter Wonderland” since he’s also a Parson Brown) requested that any monetary retirement gifts his former congregation might want to give be sent to the Bishop's Appeal for 2026 which is raising funds for religious education in Africa where the enthusiasm is strong but the seminaries are very thin on the ground.