Brad Smith – författare

Like a building site well-stocked with quality raw materials, your church abounds with possibilities--life-changing ministries just waiting to be developed. The Equipping Church Guidebook shows you how. Refining and expanding groundbreaking material, this in-depth approach helps you identify, equip, and empower lay ministers who will profoundly influence your church and your community. Behind this volume lies a massive body of research on hundreds of equipping churches across the country. Now you and your leadership team can reap the benefits with this exhaustive, hands-on resource. Nothing else compares with it. Designed and field-tested by today’s leading architects of equipping ministry, Leadership Training Network, The Equipping Church Guidebook is a blueprint for custom-building the systems and culture that are ideal for your church. Part one, Building an Equipping Ministry Vision and Culture, explains what an equipping church is, walks you through the conceptual stages, and helps your church transition to equipping vision and values. Part two, Building an Equipping Ministry System, helps you lay relational and strategic foundations, and then build on them an equipping system that gives structure and effectiveness to every aspect of church life. The Equipping Church Guidebook includes * Detailed information, clear instructions, and helpful examples * Abundant charts, graphs, and diagrams * Worksheets and assessment forms to help you apply the concepts in this book * Practical suggestions and checklists * "Contractors Conferences" to foster dialogue and decision-making as a leadership team Together with The Equipping Church, this guidebook helps you and your leadership team catch and implement the vision of Ephesians 4:11-13--equipping the saints for works of service that lead to spiritual maturity--in your church. One of the most challenging and exciting journeys in your church’s life lies ahead of you. Let the adventure begin!

Back in the Garden, work was fun. Yet, in today’s fallen world, joy and work are rarely used in the same sentence. But God really does intend for us to find joy in our work. Join Raymond Bakke, Brad Smith, and Bill Hendricks as they explore what the Bible says about the purpose of business and our right to a joyful workplace. No matter where you spend those 50 or 60 hours during the week—whether it’s in business, government, or the nonprofit sector; in church, at home, or anywhere else—God intends for you to find joy in your work.This 10-week study accompanies Joy at Work, a book by Dennis W. Bakke, co-founder and CEO of AES, a worldwide energy giant with 40,000 employees in 31 countries. Shaped by his faith, Bakke recounts his quest to create the most fun workplace ever—using principles established in the Garden. This study provides the biblical map that he used as he charted and led that journey. Starting with the Genesis record of creation and moving through Revelation, this Bible study supplements Joy at Work with:Biblical readings that unveil the principles behind each chapter in Joy at Work A synthesis of theological principlesReflective questions to prepare readers for small-group discussionQuestions for small-group discussionGuidelines for immediate and long-term application for business and nonprofit leaders at all levels of corporations and organizations.The Joy at Work experience has the power to profoundly change your workplace and your life.

From a writer who “rivals Elmore Leonard at his best” (Publishers Weekly) comes the third novel in the Virgil Cain series—a riveting story that opens with the discovery of the body of a movie star near the Hudson River.In upstate New York, Virgil Cain is drawing hay behind his team of massive Percherons when two movie scouts show up and offer $500 a day to use the horses in a film to be shot in the area. Virgil, in need of cash, reluctantly pockets the money, but he soon finds the chaotic set of Frontier Woman to be more trouble than it’s worth. Savvy producer Sam Sawchuk is in over her head; when she’s not propping up her talent-challenged husband-cum-director, she’s trying to keep tabs on a new inves­tor, the Native American casino owner Ronnie Red Hawk, a rambling egomaniac with designs on an infamous starlet. When the film’s leading lady turns up dead, Virgil discovers that more is at stake than the carnal interests of a casino magnate and the production of a major motion picture. And although he’d rather leave the whole bunch to stew in their own juices, he realizes he needs to step in before a charming ten-year-old actress named Georgia becomes the next victim.

Brad Smith, a “funny, poignant, evocative” (Dennis Lehane) crime novelist, debuts a new series set in upstate New York featuring jack-of-all trades, Virgil Cain, who must clear his name of two murders while on the run from the law in this spirited country noir. Mickey Dupree is one of the most successful criminal attorneys in upstate New York, having never lost a capital murder case. That is the upside of being Mickey. The downside: Mickey has a lot of enemies and one of them drives the shaft of a golf club through his heart, leaving him dead in a sand trap at his exclusive country club. The cops, led by a dim-witted detective named Joe Brady, focus their attentions on Virgil Cain. Just two weeks earlier Virgil told a crowded bar that “somebody ought to blow Mickey’s head off,” after the slippery lawyer earned an acquittal for Alan Comstock, the man accused of murdering Virgil’s wife. Comstock, a legendary record producer, gun nut, and certifiable lunatic, has returned to his estate, where he lives with his wife, the long suffering Jane. It appears to Virgil that the fix is in when Brady immediately throws him into jail with no questions asked. In order to set things right, Virgil escapes from jail, determined to find Mickey’s killer himself. Aside from a smart and sexy detective named Claire Marchand, everybody is convinced that Virgil is the culprit. When Alan Comstock is discovered with six slugs in his body the day after Virgil’s escape, his guilt is almost assured. Now it is up to Virgil to convince everyone of his innocence—by finding the killer before he winds up as the next victim.

Brad Smith, a “funny, poignant, evocative” (Dennis Lehane) crime novelist, debuts a new series set in upstate New York featuring jack-of-all trades, Virgil Cain, who must clear his name of two murders while on the run from the law in this spirited country noir.Mickey Dupree is one of the most successful criminal attorneys in upstate New York, having never lost a capital murder case. That is the upside of being Mickey. The downside: Mickey has a lot of enemies and one of them drives the shaft of a golf club through his heart, leaving him dead in a sand trap at his exclusive country club. The cops, led by a dim-witted detective named Joe Brady, focus their attentions on Virgil Cain. Just two weeks earlier Virgil told a crowded bar that “somebody ought to blow Mickey’s head off,” after the slippery lawyer earned an acquittal for Alan Comstock, the man accused of murdering Virgil’s wife. Comstock, a legendary record producer, gun nut, and certifiable lunatic, has returned to his estate, where he lives with his wife, the long suffering Jane. It appears to Virgil that the fix is in when Brady immediately throws him into jail with no questions asked. In order to set things right, Virgil escapes from jail, determined to find Mickey’s killer himself. Aside from a smart and sexy detective named Claire Marchand, everybody is convinced that Virgil is the culprit. When Alan Comstock is discovered with six slugs in his body the day after Virgil’s escape, his guilt is almost assured. Now it is up to Virgil to convince everyone of his innocence—by finding the killer before he winds up as the next victim.

From a writer who “rivals Elmore Leonard at his best” (Publishers Weekly) comes the third novel in the Virgil Cain series—a riveting story that opens with the discovery of the body of a movie star near the Hudson River.In upstate New York, Virgil Cain is drawing hay behind his team of massive Percherons when two movie scouts show up and offer $500 a day to use the horses in a film to be shot in the area. Virgil, in need of cash, reluctantly pockets the money, but he soon finds the chaotic set of Frontier Woman to be more trouble than it’s worth. Savvy producer Sam Sawchuk is in over her head; when she’s not propping up her talent-challenged husband-cum-director, she’s trying to keep tabs on a new inves­tor, the Native American casino owner Ronnie Red Hawk, a rambling egomaniac with designs on an infamous starlet. When the film’s leading lady turns up dead, Virgil discovers that more is at stake than the carnal interests of a casino magnate and the production of a major motion picture. And although he’d rather leave the whole bunch to stew in their own juices, he realizes he needs to step in before a charming ten-year-old actress named Georgia becomes the next victim.

*THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER AND WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM BOOK CLUB PICK*'A clear, compelling guide to some of the most pressing debates in technology today.' Bill Gates'A colourful and insightful insiders' view of how technology is both empowering us and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.' Walter Isaacson, bestselling author of Steve JobsFrom Microsoft's President and one of the tech industry's wisest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates. With new chapters on the pandemic and beyond. __________Microsoft President Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: when your technology changes the world, you bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create. This might seem uncontroversial, but it flies in the face of a tech sector long obsessed with rapid growth and sometimes on disruption as an end in itself. While sweeping digital transformation holds great promise, we have reached an inflection point. The world has turned information technology into both a powerful tool and a formidable weapon, and new approaches are needed to manage an era defined by even more powerful inventions like artificial intelligence. Companies that create technology must accept greater responsibility for the future, and governments will need to regulate technology by moving faster and catching up with the pace of innovation.In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne bring us a captivating narrative from the cockpit of one of the world's largest and most powerful tech companies as it finds itself in the middle of some of the thorniest emerging issues of our time. These are challenges that come with no pre-existing playbook, including privacy, cybercrime and cyberwar, social media, the moral conundrums of artificial intelligence, big tech's relationship to inequality, and the challenges for democracy, far and near. While in no way a self-glorifying "Microsoft memoir," the book pulls back the curtain remarkably wide onto some of the company's most crucial recent decision points as it strives to protect the hopes technology offers against the very real threats it also presents. There are huge ramifications for communities and countries, and Brad Smith provides a thoughtful and urgent contribution to that effort.__________In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith takes us behind the scenes on some of the biggest stories to hit the tech industry in the past decade and some of the biggest threats we face. From Edward Snowden's NSA leak to the NHS WannaCry ransomware attack, this book is essential reading to understand what's happening in the world around us.Praise for Tools and Weapons: 'The de facto ambassador for the technology industry at large.' The New York Times'In Tools and Weapons, Brad and Carol Ann Browne wrestle with some of the world's toughest technology challenges with common sense and valuable insight reflecting their inside experience. The ideas in Tools and Weapons won't solve all our problems, but they're a very good place to start.' - Reed Hastings, CEO, Netflix'Tools and Weapons is a glimpse behind the curtain as Microsoft reckoned with the Snowden revelations, defended against the vicious cyberattacks, and took both the Obama and Trump administrations to court.' - Rolling Stone

When the pandemic struck America, Lou decided to use his time to do something positive and share his passions with everyone. He first worked on a cookbook, In Lou of Going Out, to offer folks simple to follow recipes to enjoy with their family and even host impressive dinner parties for their friends. In doing so, Lou considered that another key part of an evening out is having a cocktail or two before, during, and after dinner. Lou went to work on his second book, S.I.P.: A Cocktail Guide and Reference for Making Craft Cocktails at Home.This guide includes information on equipping a home bar as well as what type of glass to pour that special drink into and serve. Lou has been engaged in the restaurant business and bartending on and off most of his life. He and his second wife, Laurie, hosted a gourmet dinner club for over ten years. After losing his wife to a battle with cancer in 2007, Lou continued to follow his passion and hosted dinner gatherings and cocktail parties with family and friends. Lou currently bartends at the Northridge Country Club in Fair Oaks, California. He collaborated with his bar manager and good friend Brad Smith to complete this book.Lou hopes you will enjoy learning the art of creating craft cocktails and hosting your own gathering with family and friends in style. Sale proceeds of the cookbook In Lou of Going Out and the S.I.P. Cocktail Guide will be donated to Feeding America.Salute!

The New York Times bestseller, now updated with new material on cyber attacks, digital sovereignty, and tech in a pandemic.From Microsoft's president and one of the tech industry's broadest thinkers, a frank and thoughtful reckoning with how to balance enormous promise and existential risk as the digitization of everything accelerates.“A colorful and insightful insiders’ view of how technology is both empowering and threatening us. From privacy to cyberattacks, this timely book is a useful guide for how to navigate the digital future.” —Walter IsaacsonMicrosoft president Brad Smith operates by a simple core belief: When your technology changes the world, you bear a responsibility to help address the world you have helped create. In Tools and Weapons, Brad Smith and Carol Ann Browne bring us a captivating narrative from the top of Microsoft, as the company flies in the face of a tech sector long obsessed with disruption as an end in itself, and in doing so navigates some of the thorniest issues of our time—from privacy to cyberwar to the challenges for democracy, far and near.   As the tumultuous events of 2020 brought technology and Big Tech even further into the lives of almost all Americans, Smith and Browne updated the book throughout to reflect a changed world. With three new chapters on cybersecurity, technology and nation-states, and tech in the pandemic, Tools and Weapons is an invaluable resource from the cockpit of one of the world’s largest tech companies.

When a deranged loner kills twenty-six people in a Pennsylvania schoolyard, the country is stunned and devastated. Among those catatonic with grief is Jo Matheson, an organic farmer who has lost her goddaughter in the shooting. Sam Jackson, an egotistical right-wing TV talking head, has sliding ratings and faces imminent cancellation. He arrives in Pennsylvania and during a rant, he blames the parents of the dead children. He intends the tirade to be his last salvo but, incredibly, his ratings climb, while Jo watches from her farmhouse in upstate New York, incensed. Sam rides the wave, shouting that it’s time to take the country back from the left-wing weaklings who don’t have the courage to protect their children. When he is asked to run for Congress, he accepts and amplifies his message. Watching these developments in horror, Jo finally decides that there actually is something she can do.She kidnaps Sam’s ten-year-old daughter.