About the Host
Reverend Bill Kuntze has been the host of Taking the Initiative since its beginning in 2005. He is a Retired Ordained Elder of the United Methodist Church, currently serving as the half-time Pastor of Cherry Lane United Methodist Church in Tannersville, PA. His previous professional ministry in eastern PA has included four years as the part-time Pastor of First United Methodist Church of Wind Gap; two years as the Senior Pastor of Christ Church United Church of Christ in Bethlehem; and ten years as the Executive Director of New Bethany Ministries in Bethlehem, an agency that serves poor and homeless people. Between permanent positions he also served for short terms at both the Allentown Rescue Mission and the Lehigh Conference of Churches.
Before moving to Pennsylvania, Rev. Kuntze served as the Executive Director of the Urban Mission in Steubenville, Ohio; in pastoral positions at both small inner-city and large suburban congregations in the Chicago area; and as the Director of a campus ministry at The University of Chicago.
Pastor Kuntze also has extensive teaching experience. For two years he taught an online seminar for students doing internships through Iliff School of Theology at Denver University. He also taught part-time for ten years at The Chicago Theological Seminary, and one course at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, IL.
Rev. Kuntze has participated in both international peace missions, and mission work teams in the United States and in other countries.
He is married to The Reverend Janice I. Butz, an Ordained Deacon of the United Methodist Church, who is the Minister of Music and Organist at Saint John’s Lutheran Church in Nazareth, Pennsylvania. The family home is in Bethlehem Township.