- He received his academic training at:
University of Illinois
B.A., Pillsbury College
M.A., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School & Jersualem University College
M.Div., Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Ph.D., Dropsie College for Hebrew & Cognate Learning
Dr. Ferris is married to Lois Fransen Ferris (Seminary Student Life). They have a daughter, two sons and four grandchildren.
Dr. Ferris has served as pastor, hospital chaplain, church planter, consultant, college & seminary professor, and college & seminary president. He has studied overseas, has traveled to some 30 countries and has lectured in the U.S., Canada, Haiti, France, Germany, Romania, Israel, Egypt, and the Philippines. Dr. Ferris participated as presenter and panelist at Lausanne II International Congress on World Evangelization in Manilla. He has authored The Genre of Communal Lament in the Bible and the Ancient Near East and numerous journal articles. He has contibuted to The Wycliffe Bible Encyclopedia, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, The Portable Seminary, The Dictionary of the Old Testament: Wisdom, Poetry & Writings, the forthcoming The Expositor's Bible Commentary, and the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary. He is a fellow of the Institute for Biblical Research, a Kern Fellow, and is a member of the Society of Biblical Literature, the Evangelical Theological Society, the National Association of Professors of Hebrew. He served as Vice-Chairperson of the Evangelical Theological Society: Midwest Region, 2008-2009 and as Chairperson, 2009-2010.
