He’s served as a pastor, a midnight campus safety officer, an assistant director of church relations, and presently as an event manager handling everything from academic department gatherings to commencement celebrations. But in all the ways he serves at Cedarville University, Tim Abel follows this one constant: Ultimately, his servanthood is for the Lord.

One of the crucial moments in his servanthood journey happened several years before he arrived at Cedarville, on “the Miracle Mile” – Michigan Avenue in downtown Chicago. While he studied at Moody Bible Institute, he served as a doorman at a high-rise condominium complex where the rich and famous lived and visited. Celebrities such as Michael Jordan, Denzel Washington, and Julia Roberts, among many others, crossed his path.

Opening doors and grabbing a cab for those in the stratosphere of American society kept Tim’s feet firmly on the ground. And Cedarville’s students, faculty, and staff have received the blessings of the life transformation he experienced.

“God used that job to help me see that ultimately I’m a servant of the King of kings and Lord of lords, and I serve Him,” Tim said in a recent interview with Cedarville public relations. “What I do here on earth is service unto Him, and the Lord helped me see and understand that.

“When you serve, you may not be thanked, appreciated, or even noticed, but ultimately our service needs to be focused on Him.”


Even though she is legally blind, Tim’s daughter, Hannah, also embraces the same servant mindset evident in her dad.