Central PA Speaker | Pastor Joe Gerhart
Booking for Wild Game/Sportsman Dinners, Men's Retreats and Keynote Presentations on Bearing Witness to the Natural World
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Faith. The Outdoors. The Stories That Shape Us.
Faith. The Outdoors. The Stories That Shape Us.
Some lessons are learned in a church sanctuary. Others are learned beneath an open sky.
For Joe Gerhart, the outdoors has long been a place of wonder, pursuit, reflection, failure, patience, and encounter with God. Whether sitting quietly in the deer woods, watching elk move across a Pennsylvania hillside, working around the family farm, or carrying a camera along a back road, Joe has discovered that creation often has a way of revealing what our hurried lives cause us to overlook.
Through story-driven messages rooted in Scripture and shaped by life outdoors, Joe invites audiences to consider what hunting, wildlife, wilderness, and the rhythms of creation can teach us about faith.
His presentations combine biblical truth, personal experience, humor, photography, and honest stories from the field. Rather than speaking as someone who has mastered either faith or the outdoors, Joe speaks as a fellow traveler who is still learning to pay attention, follow Christ, and remain faithful through every season.
Featured Speaking Settings
Wild Game/Sportsman Dinners
Wild Game/Sportsman Dinners
Wild game dinners create a natural gathering place for hunters, families, churches, and communities.
Joe brings a message that understands the culture of the outdoors while clearly communicating the hope of the gospel. His speaking is welcoming to longtime believers, skeptical listeners, and those who may rarely attend church.
Using hunting experiences, humor, storytelling, and Scripture, Joe builds a bridge from the pursuit of game to the deeper questions of life:
What are we living for?
What are we pursuing?
What happens when the hunt is over?
Where do we find identity, purpose, forgiveness, and hope?
Messages can include a clear gospel invitation when appropriate for the event.
Men’s Retreats
Men’s Retreats
Men often carry more than they admit.
Responsibilities at home, pressure at work, spiritual struggles, disappointment, temptation, and the expectation to remain strong can leave men isolated and weary. Joe speaks honestly about these burdens while pointing men toward the grace, strength, freedom, and new life found in Jesus Christ.
His retreat messages are rooted in Scripture, filled with stories, and designed to move beyond surface-level encouragement. Depending on the needs and theme of the retreat, Joe can provide a single keynote message or develop multiple connected sessions.
Possible retreat themes include:
Pursuing Christ
Identity and purpose
Endurance through hardship
Spiritual leadership
Finding God in the wilderness
Living fully alive in Christ
Messages From the Field:
Joe’s messages explore the intersection of faith, the outdoors, hunting, perseverance, purpose, and the call to follow Christ.
Some presentations are established messages, while others can be developed or adapted around the needs, theme, audience, and purpose of your event. Each message is biblical, story-driven, and shaped by Joe’s experiences as a pastor, hunter, photographer, and outdoorsman.
On the Hunt: A Pennsylvania Hunter’s Guide to Pursuit
On the Hunt: A Pennsylvania Hunter’s Guide to Pursuit
Every hunter understands pursuit.
We study the landscape. We look for signs. We prepare our equipment. We wait through long hours. We endure discomfort, disappointment, and missed opportunities because we believe what we are pursuing is worth the effort.
But what are we pursuing beyond the woods?
In On The Hunt: A Pennsylvania Hunter’s Guide to Pursuit, Joe uses the familiar language and experiences of Pennsylvania hunters to explore the deeper pursuits that shape our lives. Through hunting stories, biblical truth, and practical reflection, he challenges audiences to consider what they are chasing, what has captured their hearts, and whether their lives are being shaped by the pursuit of Christ.
This message is especially suited for wild game feasts, sportsmen’s events, men’s retreats, and outdoor ministry gatherings.
Other Messages Include:
Bearing Witness: Learning to Pay Attention
Bearing Witness: Learning to Pay Attention
We live much of our lives distracted, hurried, and focused on what comes next.
Drawing from wildlife photography, hunting, pastoral ministry, and encounters in the outdoors, Joe explores the spiritual discipline of paying attention. Creation does not replace Scripture, but it can remind us to slow down, listen, and recognize the presence and work of God around us.
This message invites audiences to become more attentive to God, to creation, to the people around them, and to the moments they might otherwise miss.
Lessons from the Deer Woods
Lessons from the Deer Woods
The deer woods teach patience, preparation, humility, perseverance, and the acceptance that much of life remains outside our control.
Through stories from hunting and Scripture, Joe connects the experience of the woods with the challenges men face in their homes, churches, workplaces, and personal walk with Christ.
This message can be adapted around themes such as endurance, leadership, identity, fatherhood, temptation, spiritual discipline, and faithfulness.
The God of the Wild Places
The God of the Wild Places
Scripture is filled with people who encountered God in wild and lonely places.
Moses stood before a burning bush in the wilderness. David learned dependence while watching sheep. Elijah heard the quiet voice of God on a mountain. Jesus regularly withdrew to lonely places to pray.
In this message, Joe explores why God so often uses wilderness, solitude, difficulty, and uncertainty to shape His people. It is an invitation to trust God in the places where life feels unfamiliar, uncomfortable, or beyond our control.
When the Hunt Doesn't Go as Planned
When the Hunt Doesn't Go as Planned
Every hunter has stories of bad weather, missed shots, empty woods, broken equipment, changed plans, and seasons that did not produce the hoped-for result.
Life is often the same.
Using humor, honesty, and biblical truth, Joe reflects on disappointment, failure, unanswered prayer, and the temptation to measure faithfulness only by visible success. This message encourages audiences to trust that God remains present and at work even when the outcome is not what they expected.
The Responsibility of the Outdoorsman
The Responsibility of the Outdoorsman
Hunters and outdoorsmen are not merely consumers of the land. They are also witnesses, participants, and stewards.
This presentation explores the responsibility to respect wildlife, care for habitat, hunt ethically, pass outdoor traditions to the next generation, and recognize creation as something entrusted to us rather than owned by us.
The message can be presented as a faith-based talk or adapted for a broader community audience.
What Audiences Can Expect
What Audiences Can Expect
Joe’s speaking combines:
Biblical teaching grounded in everyday life
Hunting and outdoor stories
Original wildlife and landscape photography
Humor and honest reflection
A clear connection between faith and the outdoors
An accessible style for both church and community audiences
A message that can be tailored to the event’s theme and purpose
Joe is available for individual messages, keynote presentations, retreat sessions, wild game feasts, sportsmen’s gatherings, conferences, and community events.
About Joe
About Joe
Rev. Joseph Gerhart is a pastor, speaker, writer, wildlife photographer, hunter, husband, and father.
Joe holds a bachelor’s degree in Geography and Geology with an emphasis in Environmental Science from Mansfield University and a master’s degree in Christian Studies from Crown College. He has served in pastoral ministry since 2015 and currently serves as Lead Pastor of Community Alliance Church of Karthaus, Pennsylvania.
Through Bearing Witness, Joe brings together faith, photography, storytelling, and the outdoors. His work is rooted in the conviction that paying attention—to God, to Scripture, to creation, and to one another—can change the way we live.
Joe has spoken at men’s retreats, wild game feasts, churches, and ministry gatherings. His messages are shaped by Scripture, pastoral experience, life in rural Pennsylvania, and the many lessons learned while hunting, photographing wildlife, and walking through seasons of both beauty and hardship.
Invite Joe to Speak
Invite Joe to Speak
Joe would be glad to discuss your men’s retreat, wild game feast, conference, sportsmen’s event, church gathering, or community program.
Messages can be tailored to the audience, event theme, available time, and desired spiritual emphasis.
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