Texico Conference Pastor Tobin Savage’s life and ministry took him down some unexpected paths. From his childhood near La Vida Mission in northwestern New Mexico to careers in ministry, education, and technical work, Savage followed his varied interests while looking for ways to use his gifts in service to God and others.

On Aug.15, Savage passed away, leaving behind his wife, Rebekah; their children, Andrew and Krissy; and a legacy of ministry that stretched across several states and communities.

Born into a fifth-generation Seventh-day Adventist family in Loma Linda, Calif., Savage grew up surrounded by faith and service. His parents were youth leaders at Azure Hills Seventh-day Adventist Church, but when he was in the fourth grade, his family made a move that would help shape much of his life. They relocated to La Vida Mission in northwestern New Mexico.

His parents opened a trading post near La Vida, and after attending the mission school for one year, Savage was homeschooled for the remainder of his elementary education. Life outside the traditional classroom offered lessons of its own. He helped his parents in the store and learned mechanics from his father, developing the curiosity and technical ability that would remain with him throughout his life.

Savage later attended Campion Academy and Thunderbird Adventist Academy. He developed a love of flying, but it was during a student Week of Prayer that the direction of his life began to change. While giving a Week of Prayer presentation, Savage first sensed that God might be calling him to ministry.

After academy, Savage enrolled at La Sierra University as a physics major. As the call to ministry became clearer through prayer and counsel, he changed his major to religion.

At La Sierra, he also met Rebekah, whom he married and with whom he would share the many transitions of family life, career, and ministry. Rebekah built a career in special education, and together they raised Andrew and Krissy.

Following graduation, Savage began serving at Holbrook Indian School, where his interests in education and ministry came together as he taught and served as an associate pastor.

Yet the young man who had learned mechanics alongside his father had never lost his interest in technical work. Savage went on to earn a degree in instrumentation and controls and became a journeyman electrician. Those skills would become another part of the unusual path through which he served.

An opportunity for full-time pastoral ministry eventually took Savage to Dubuque, Iowa. Later, he and his family returned to the West and settled in Rangely, Colo. There, Savage entered a season of bivocational ministry, working for Chevron Oil Company while pastoring the Craig and Steamboat Springs Seventh-day Adventist churches.

Savage moved easily between technical work and pastoral ministry, the practical and the theological. Whether his work involved tools, instrumentation, teaching, or preaching, service remained at its center.

Years later, a longtime dream drew Savage back toward the region that had shaped his childhood. He had always wanted to build a cabin in the mountains, and when the opportunity came, he made that dream a reality. He and Rebekah moved to Ramah, N.M.

The move brought his story full circle. The boy who had grown up near La Vida Mission in northwestern New Mexico was once again making his home in the region.

In 2022, Savage was invited to return to full-time pastoral ministry, this time with the Texico Conference. He accepted the call and began serving the Gallup, Grants, Pie Town, Reserve, and Crownpoint district.

His experiences as a teacher, tradesman, electrician, oil industry worker, builder, and pastor all informed his ministry. He understood both the pulpit and the workplace and had spent much of his life navigating many of the same responsibilities and challenges experienced by the people sitting in the pews.

Savage served the district until early 2026. His life is difficult to summarize by listing the churches he pastored or the positions he held. Its richness is found in the journey between them, the different abilities he cultivated, the places he called home, the people he served, and his willingness to follow God’s leading through changing seasons.

For the Texico Conference family, his passing brings sorrow, particularly for those who worshiped with him, worked beside him, and experienced his ministry personally. Yet his story also leaves a reminder that a call to serve God does not always unfold in predictable ways.

For Savage, that call led from a childhood trading post to a classroom, from physics to theology, from technical work to pastoral ministry, and eventually back to the New Mexico landscape he had loved since childhood. Through each change, he continued to find ways to serve.

The Texico Conference continues to hold Rebekah, Andrew, Krissy, and the entire Savage family in prayer, looking with them toward the hope of the resurrection and the day when Christ will make all things new.