Our Pastor

The summer of 2012 marked Pastor David Ferrero’s 50^th year at Mansfield Christian Fellowship and 50+ years of his wife Joan Ferrero’s ministry there as well. MCF is an undenominational church with a similar style to a home group church, in that their Sunday service consists of informal sharing among members, hymns and choruses, as well as teaching by David.

Originally from the Olympia, Tenino, Washington area, after graduating from high school, David attended the New Testament School located in Seattle, later known as the Washington Bible School and became a teacher there including short-term mission trips into Canada and Mexico. In 1959, David was invited to minister in Cuba with a pastor and missionaries there including work on a radio ministry. He traveled to various ministries as the spirit lead him in Washington, California, Texas, Kansas, Mississippi, Illinois, and Minnesota. It was with a minister from Minnesota, Maynard Howe, that David came to visit a small church in Mansfield Depot, CT.

The small building in the village of Mansfield Depot originated as a meeting room originally known as the Union Chapel Society in the late 1800s, then became Second Baptist Church of Mansfield (1907), and then later changed to Eber Dunham Memorial Church based on a trust fund. Philip Jerome Cleveland, a minister from Canterbury, had a burden for opening small closed churches in the area. He came once a month and opened these churches including what in 1973 came to be known as Mansfield Christian Fellowship on the third Sunday of the month. His son, Bruce Cleveland became weekly pastor in the 1950s.

Following Pastor Cleveland, Bruce Robinson headed the church and it was during that year, 1962, that a 26 year-old David Ferrero visited the church for the first time. There he met his then-future wife, Joan, who grew up in Mansfield Depot and had started a children’s program at the church as well as serving in the music ministry. More than 50 years later, Joan continues to lead the music ministry and children’s school each Sunday. She also coordinates a music outreach group, called Whosoever, who enjoys playing and singing at a local convalescent home each month.

David was joined by a co-pastor, Robert Justice, for 5 years in 1960s. In addition to his ministry responsibilities, David supplemented his income by working as a house painter and postal clerk for 22 years. He also ministered at the Bergen Correctional Center for 17 years until its close in October 2011. David has served on the Mansfield Ethics Committee and continues to serve weekly at the International Christian Fellowship at UConn. He also coordinates a monthly pastor’s breakfast for local area pastors to fellowship and to encourage one another in their ministries. They recognize that their duties, including everything from unlocking the church door and turning the heat on to preparing weekly messages and Wednesday night Bible studies, counseling people, home and hospital visits, coordinating and performing baptisms, weddings, and funerals, basically boil down to being available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week to serve others.

As the Ferreros look back on the 50+ years of ministry together, they can see that the changes in our society and culture have impacted the expectations that church goers have for the Sunday Service and Fellowship. Even as David and Joan invest their lives in the lives of others, some members have decided it's time to move away from the Fellowship and on to another church body where their expectations and agendas are met. It takes a lot of patience, tolerance, and God’s Grace, but they have learned that an ever-changing church is an ever-growing church.