I am Joseph Tobias. I am a pastor, and I care about faith and the world we share.
Most of my week is spent with people in the middle of something. I preach and lead worship. I sit with people on the hardest day of their year. I help a congregation work out what love of neighbor costs this time around. Those rooms are where my questions come from.
Where I come from
I was born and raised in Nigeria and now serve in Texas. I am an associate pastor at Tarrytown United Methodist Church in Austin. I earlier served Wesley United Methodist Church in Corpus Christi and St. Paul’s United Methodist Church. I have also worked as a hospital chaplain, which is where I learned to stay in a room after the doctor leaves.
I am a PhD student at the University of Cape Town. My research looks at religious leadership, social inequality, African theology, and how faith communities respond to suffering, with a focus on Nigeria. Food and clothing ministries, hospital rooms, and the library all shape how I see the world.
Why “an African child”
I was born in Nigeria, and the name keeps me honest about where I come from. But the child is the point, not the continent. A child asks the obvious question everyone else has stopped asking. A child trusts before he understands. A child notices when the adults in the room are pretending. I try to live in that posture: curious, a little stubborn, and still learning to see.
I care about God and people and the ordinary places where the two meet, and I refuse to grow out of asking why.
What I believe about this work
Faith has to attend to the whole person: body, mind, spirit, family, and the society around them. A sermon that ignores the rent is incomplete. A food pantry that ignores the soul is incomplete too. The words I come back to are dignity, accompaniment, healing, justice, and hope. I try to live those words out loud.
Alongside pastoral work I am completing doctoral studies in religion and society, which gives me a place to test these ideas with more rigor.
Get in touch
If you have a question or a story to share, send me a note. Thank you for being part of this journey.