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!
Leaven
A couple of times a year the men of one of my churches gather in the church kitchen (yes, we have special permission from the kitchen overseers). We get together to make cinnamon rolls to sell at the annual Bazaar and every other year for the Yard Sale. These rolls are popular with folks because they have a unique recipe - they are made from a yeast dough. Because of the special properties of yeast, the rolls come out light and chewy (unless we add too much flour).
Yeast is an amazing substance. According to Britannica online, there are about 1500 different varieties of yeast found throughout our world. Yeasts are single-celled fungi and only a few are used in brewing beer, fermenting grapes into wine and for baking wonderful tasting breads and rolls. The special function of yeast in bread making is for them to feast on sugar and create carbon dioxide bubbles. These bubbles lighten the dough and create a unique texture. Yeast is the main agent for producing gas – which is referred to as leavening.
Jesus talked about how a small amount of yeast was enough to leaven many times its weight in flour. He used this analogy to teach the disciples that they could do much good in the world even though they were just a few among so many non-believers. Jesus taught his followers to tell the stories he taught them, to live in a way that was different and helpful, to give of themselves so that their light would shine into a world that was often dark, to be servants to all and to always work for the common good. If they followed in his way, then they would be able to lighten the loads of those around them and to bring nourishment to those who were starving.
The blessed assurance that we have as followers of the God of our understanding is that God has given us the ability to leaven the world around us. Spencer W. Kimball helpfully writes, “…Jesus said several times, ‘Come, follow me.’ His was a program of ‘do what I do,’ rather than ‘do what I say.’ His innate brilliance would have permitted him to put on a dazzling display, but that would have left his followers far behind. He walked and worked with those he was to serve. His was not a long-distance leadership. He was not afraid of close friendships; he was not afraid that proximity to him would disappoint his followers. The leaven of true leadership cannot lift others unless we are with and serve those to be led….”
People come and buy our cinnamon rolls because they are made from scratch with love and attention. They are not mass produced; each one is shaped a little different from its neighbor. The yeast is allowed to do its work, but only to a certain point, then the rising has to stop or the dough gets “over-proofed’ and it is unusable. As we are working, the guys have time to share our lives and add a little leaven to each other. We never know all the burdens that others are carrying, and this kind of group event lightens the load for all of us – creating memories that we carry away with us. Memories of times shared with those who are no longer walking this earth.
Leavening is important for all of us right now. The world seems dense, heavy, and it weighs us down with concerns and fears. Jesus lived in such a time as this, and there have been many such times over the last 2000 years. Into each heavy situation, there has always been just enough leavening to get humanity through. There have always been those who are gifted and called to be that small amount of yeast in the world – ready to do what they can to lighten things up. You may be struggling with heavy burdens right now. If so, I encourage you to come to a faith community this week. There you will find folks who are leavening agents in this part of God’s world. They have found a way to transform the world around them into something resembling God’s kingdom. If you hang around them, you might just get leavened too. Blessings for your journey this week!