Rev. Dan Albrant serves as the pastor for both Mineral and Mt. Pleasant UMC’s.
Welcome to the website for the Mineral-Mount Pleasant Charge of The United Methodist Church! We are very glad you stopped by for a visit and to learn more about us. Our churches have been yoked together in a charge (that is they share one pastor) since 1947. The churches themselves are only about 6 miles apart, one in the town of Mineral, and the other closer to the town of Louisa.
I have been the pastor of this Charge since July 2022. I was pastor of the Madison Charge in Madison, Virginia, from July 2017 to June 2022. Prior to that I was a hospital clinical pharmacist, practicing in intensive care, emergency departments, and operating rooms. I served as a consultant on new pharmacist practices and quality improvement as well as designing and implementing new training programs for pharmacists to improve patient outcomes.
You may be wondering how I got from Pharmacy to Ministry? Good question…it was an evolution. I was called by God to be a pharmacist, of that I am certain. During my time working in the high stress, low touch environment of intensive care, I began to feel disquieted in my soul. Something was missing – I needed to care for people in a different and more wholistic way. So, God moved me along a path of rejoining church, getting involved in Stephen Ministry as a minister and leader, and in an intentional period of spiritual growth. All this took about 12 years before I found myself at age 50 with the strong desire to attend Seminary. I attended Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, from 2013 to 2017 and graduated with a Masters of Divinity degree with honors.
The United Methodist Church has gone through a season of change with disaffiliation of about 20% of its churches. That time has now ended, and both of these churches remain firmly United Methodist under the care and direction of our Resident Bishop. Our worship style is Traditional, and sermons come directly from the weekly scripture readings of the Revised Common Lectionary (used by many Christian denominations). There is a Choir at the Mineral UMC and many wonderful ministries for you to engage in at both churches. We hope that you will come and give us a try one Sunday. You will be warmly welcomed, and we believe that you will feel like you are at home.
I love serving the rural church and her people. My wife and I have found a home here at Lake Anna and we look forward to many years of ministry outreach, worship, fellowship and fun. We enjoy sharing our lives with those whom God has called to be the church of Jesus Christ. We have two young adult sons, one of whom flies for NetJets and the other who is training to be an electrician. Our black Labrador, Hope, rounds out our immediate family. Let me know how I might be of service to you, or how we might pray for people or situations that are important to you. You can find copies of my sermons under the "Blogs" tab and links to other resources for your spiritual journey. May God bless you on your way!
Life’s Problems
Take it from me, a pastor, there’s a lot of problems in the lives of those living with and around us. Maybe you are facing one or more yourself right now. Life’s problems abound and come in all shapes and sizes. The Buddha understood this and thus was able to discern the Four Noble Truths of life which in abbreviated form state “that life is suffering; suffering is caused by greed; suffering ends when we stop being greedy; and the way to do that is to follow something called the Eightfold Path”. Other religious leaders and sacred texts suggest that it is not just greediness that are the cause of life’s problems, it is our over identification with our needs above and beyond the needs of others.
The philosopher, Blaise Pascal, stated that, “All of humanity's problems stem from man's inability to sit quietly in a room alone.” Interestingly, he spoke this truth long before the advent of the internet and all the associated distractions, suffering and problems that it has brought to life. It is an interesting exercise in our day and time to see how long any of us can sit in a room alone and in quiet.
I have found that many of life’s problems stem from the fact that we do not know ourselves or our world very well. We don’t just sit quietly in a place and perform a self-assessment of our lives, our health, our relationships, our work-life, our desires and dreams, etc. If we did, we might find that we would be less impulsive and reactionary, more forgiving and compassionate toward others, feel more connected to ourselves and those around us, have more self-insight. I grew up hunting and fishing, and I love the solitude of woods and water. Even now I look forward to the coming few months where I can venture out and sit down and watch the animals go through their days. Quietly sitting in the woods or on the water (supposedly bringing home dinner) allows me the space to think deeply about my life’s problems and the problems of those around me. It allows me the opportunity to connect deeply with my Higher Power and to reconnect with what is important.
When I walk back out of the woods or come in off the water, I find that I am more balanced and the world and my problems are put into their proper perspective. There are times that I can attain the same quietude and calm during a worship service. I also find that when I am performing a service project, like a “Rise Against Hunger” meal packing event, that I can get into a flow and achieve a level of quiet and calm because I am doing something for other people. I lose sight of my life’s problems and can focus on something more important, in this example, alleviating just a bit of the world’s hunger.
How do you handle life’s problems? Do you tackle them head-on and do your best to solve them? Do you allow them to overwhelm you? Do you numb or avoid them through drugs, alcohol, gambling or other unhealthy behaviors? Do you just procrastinate telling yourself that you’ll get around to them sometime soon? Yeah…life’s problems don’t disappear just because we numb, ignore or avoid them. Sometimes though, we all could use a little help in dealing with issues that have built up.
This is where being part of a faith community can be helpful. There you will find people who have had all types of life problems – large and small. They are available to listen to you and to walk with you – perhaps even offering you a way forward that you hadn’t tried. If you’re looking for ways to deal with one or more of life’s problems, try attending a faith community this week. Sitting with like-minded people for an hour and learning how to share your life with them may help you find a way forward. Blessings for your journey!