Ferry began his career at Concordia University Wisconsin as a professor of history in 1991.
Prior to that time, he served as an educator for the University of Wyoming during the 1990-1991 school year, the Lutheran campus pastor for the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming, from 1989 to 1991, and the assistant pastor at Wheat Ridge Lutheran Church in Wheat Ridge, Colorado, from 1987 to 1989.