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!
Serenity
How would you define the word “serenity”? Merriam-Webster’s Online Dictionary defines it as “a state of utter calm and unruffled repose or quietude”. I’ve always had the ability to remain unruffled in many challenging situations. It was what gave me the ability to function in the ICU and Emergency Department environment without losing my cool or my mind. I’m not sure that I would have called myself serene when I was in the middle of the chaos and mayhem that often accompanied a shift in those environments, but I was able to block out the noise and emotion and find a way to focus on what needed to be done.
There is not much that is serene in our lives these days. The 24/7 news cycle which fills our minds with pictures and voices that speak of one crisis after another. The divisions which are fostered between us by the news purveyor to which we choose to listen. The things that we read and the people with whom we gather. Each and every one of these can get us so spun up that we are running on adrenaline and spoiling for a fight.
There are tens of millions of people out there who are struggling with addictions too. These people are not serene, because their “drug of choice” dictates how they live their lives. People with addictions live to feed their disease, and they never know “calm, repose or quietude”. This is why the “Serenity Prayer” by theologian Reinhold Niebuhr has been adopted by 12-Step programs around the world. This prayer asks specifically for the God of our understanding to grant us a practical and implementable kind of serenity. Pray it with me, “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change; courage to change the things I can; and wisdom to know the difference.
Living one day at a time; enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; taking, as He (Jeus/God) did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; trusting that He (Jesus/God) will make all things right if I surrender to His Will;
that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him forever in the next. Amen.”
The blessed assurance that we have as beloved children of God is that God can grant us serenity if we choose to do what we can to make ourselves ready to accept it. I have found great peace of mind by working to understand and accept what it is that I can and cannot change. The wisdom to know the difference between those two is often hard won, but I have found the struggle to be worth the cost. I have become more serene by not looking too far down the road – trying to live each day to its fullest and then to rest in peace at night knowing I have done my best. I have also become more serene by not trying to change people to fit some arbitrary way of living that suits me. Afterall, God accepts me just as I am and meets me where I am – I should do the same.
Serenity comes to us when we learn how to work with God and our neighbors in a way that is loving, just and non-controlling. When we accept people for who they are, then we can begin to understand how we can best be with them without causing more harm or frustration for either party. Serenity comes when we detach from the fray and assess what it is that God is calling us to do in a given situation.
You may be looking for some serenity in your life. I suggest that you slowly and thoughtfully pray the “Serenity Prayer” at least daily for a while. Like me, you may find that there is great wisdom for living contained in it. I also invite you to come to a faith community this week. There you will find good people who are trying to become more centered in God and God’s will for their lives. You may find some folks who have figured out how to live serenely and how to share that serenity into your life. This week, may you find the serenity you seek. Blessings for your journey!