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!
A Christmas Gift
You will be reading this one side of Christmas Day or the other, depending on printing cycles. It is the season of gift purchasing, wrapping and exchange – so much so that it is hard to remember that anything else is happening in the world. People are all caught up in the busyness and they are giddy with anticipation for Christmas morning to arrive (and not just the youngest among us). Too often, some of the gifts we receive at Christmas are really not acceptable. They are not the right color, style, size or something that we are interested in using. One year my wife bought “me” a cappuccino maker – ignoring the fact that I don’t care for that kind of coffee drink. I found a relatively nice way to tell her this, and the maker was exchanged later for something we both wished for.
Christmas gifts are often memorable, but even some of the best lose their shine over time. Think of all the games, bikes, and other toys you received over your childhood. Of all of those gifts, I suspect less than 10% ever made much of an impression on you or were truly memorable. We found with our sons that once they reached a certain age, we would give experiential gifts – things that would build memories for them of our family doing something interesting together.
Christians believe that God decided to give a gift of love at Christmas that was truly memorable. God gave us the experience of God in human form – fully human and fully divine, born of a woman, come to set God’s people free from all that imprisoned them. This gift which keeps on giving set all people free to live lives of peace, joy, hope and being in love with God and with all of creation. It was the gift of God’s love made flesh which opened the eyes of those around him to the fullness of what it meant to be human – to be fully alive every moment of every day. This is a gift that has continued to give over the last 2000 years – truly unforgettable.
The blessed assurance we have as followers of God is that God continues every moment of our lives to gift us God’s unconditional and transformative love. That love is not just at Christmas or just for Christians, but for all people to receive from the God of their understanding. Case-in-point is a teaching from the Dalai Lama who said about the gift of being alive, “Every day, think as you wake up, today I am fortunate to be alive, I have a precious human life, I am not going to waste it. I am going to use all my energies to develop myself, to expand my heart out to others; to achieve enlightenment for the benefit of all beings. I am going to have kind thoughts towards others; I am not going to get angry or think badly about others. I am going to benefit others as much as I can.”
God gave us life and gave us unique gifts to use to make the world a better place – to work for the common good. What will you do with your one wild and precious life (as the poet Mary Oliver asked)? If you haven’t considered that question, then I invite you to come to a faith community this week. There you will find people in all stages of unwrapping and understanding their gift from God. Some think that they got the wrong gift, or struggle to live it in the world – but everyone in that faith community has something from God that they can share with the world to make it better.
This is true of you as well. After you have unwrapped all of the gifts under your Christmas tree this year, don’t forget to unwrap and use the greatest gift of all – the life that God has given you to live. Louisa County and the larger world are waiting to receive what you have to offer. This Christmas, give back to the world the gift of yourself. You’ll never regret it. Peace and grace to you all, and Merry Christmas!