About the Contributor(s): Allan Hugh Cole Jr. is Academic Dean and Professor in the Nancy Taylor Williamson Distinguished Chair of Pastoral Care at Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary, in Austin, Texas. He is the author or editor of several books, including Good Mourning (2008); The Life of Prayer (2009); A Spiritual Life (editor, 2011); and The Faith and Friendships of Teenage Boys (coauthor, 2012). He is father to two daughters.

As Allan Cole knows firsthand, both personally and pastorally, Christians are not immune from anxiety, and many believers go to their church leaders for support and solace. This helpful book draws on narrative approaches to theology and counseling to suggest how pastoral caregivers may effectively minister to anxious persons. Be Not Anxious provides pastors and other caregivers with a basic understanding of anxiety, including how to identify those suffering from it and how to get at what is making them anxious. Cole focuses both on cognitive-based methods and on common faith practices -- church membership, frequent worship, prayer, Bible reading, service, and confession -- showing how these may provide relief from anxiety. By addressing the roles of both psychiatry and ministry as co-liberators from anxiety, he leads the pastor and the faith community in helping disquieted souls to find rest.

The distinguished contributors to this volume - ministers, scholars, and theological educators - share personal reflections on the sometimes-difficult transition from being a seminarian to becoming a minister. Based on their own life experiences, they address the two related but different "worlds" of theological school and ministry setting, each with its own set of expectations, values, challenges, focal points, and rewards.

Contributors: Wallace M. Alston Jr.
Ray S. Anderson
M. Craig Barnes
Elizabeth F. Caldwell
Allan Hugh Cole Jr.
Pamela D. Couture
Kathy Dawson
Carrie Doehring
Michael Jinkins
L. Gregory Jones
Susan Pendleton Jones
James F. Kay
Cleophus J. LaRue
Thomas G. Long
Loren B. Mead
Bonnie J. Miller-McLemore
Earl F. Palmer
Stephanie Paulsell
Anthony B. Robinson
Carol L. Schnabl Schweitzer
Theodore J. Wardlaw
Traci C. West
William H. Willimon
J. Philip Wogaman
Karen Marie Yust