To think about how this African American Pentecostal Church, in this unique social context, can found its endeavors on a "multicultural theology", I will be engaging chapters two and five from the book of Acts. I will explore the early church's concept of faith, asking this question: was the concept of the house of prayer the forerunner of God's "the universal church, multiculturalism," which we have gotten away from today? This paper endeavors to provide a brief research portion that sets forth a proposed model for a multicultural church.

Public theology is in my opinion has three publics: the Church, the Academy and Society. Public theology is the need for theology to engage, interact with and participate in public issues in the public arena. Public theology is the new vehicle that must be the voice that brings the various sectors in contemporary society i.e., the political realm, capital markets, economics, cultures and ethnicities, religions, third world and international countries and issues brought on by this pandemic together in dialogue with one another to bring about radical human and social change.

In the article A Companion to Public Theology by Kim and Day, Theologian Linell Cady suggests that when we speak on this topic generally public theology refers to the church reflectively engaging with those within and outside its institutions on issues of common interest and for the common good. Therefore, the church has the responsibility to be in reflection, looking at itself inward and outward to the community. Its members are challenged to understand what the church represents and how best it can use its time, talents, and service to improve the community.

Kim and Day further define Public Theology in this manner:

"Generally public theology refers to church reflectively engage with those within and outside its institutions issues of common interest and for the common good." "The goal, finally of the theological project is not to evangelize a sinful society, focusing on individual salvation, but to seek God's intention for all creation, i.e., the common good. Public theology is concerned with all aspects of human life and social experience."

To extend this out a little further public theology in my opinion is involved in public discourse and the social processes of the public arena. What this means is that "in the democratic public forum, only when theology is willing to enter the discourse by arguing "in ways that can be evaluated and judged by publicly available warrants and criteria can it be considered a public theology."

The conclusion to the definition of this is that referring back to Kim and Day "Public theology seeks the shared values by which arguments can be heard and critiqued. Ultimately such dialogue can move toward public action for the common good."

Public theology has to identify and examine how the church will work for the common good and engage people from outside its walls through the environmental, economic, political, and global issues as part of its vision for the common good. E. Harold Breitenberg, Jr., suggests that public theology intersects with and is found in all forms of discourse, public and private. For a further view on public theology Bonhoeffer, King, Tutu and Niebuhr public theology resided in a theology and social activism and a social engagement in human experience that led to moral action. In the words of John Lewis, it led to "good trouble." In the final analysis, in my opinion public theology is meant to evangelize but when looked at in its narrowest vein, it is meant to be concerned with all aspects of human life and social experience in terms of its relationship to multiculturalism.

Public theology can be cast as a concept and support for multiculturalism when looked at in the historic frame of the early church. In that public arena it is conceivable that the early apostles may have viewed their Pentecostal movement as a move toward the multicultural church that God intended. We do not know the minds, the intent or the thinking of the apostles at that time. However, there is evidence we do have regarding the equal sharing of the gospel by many races, creeds, ethnicities, colors and cultures under the same roof. Consequently, what is attempted to be illustrated and described in this paper may in fact have been the church and the kind theological and religious society that we have grossly deviated from today.

In public theology and the focus of multiculturalism, we seek to provide grace, salvation, and prayer, to be inclusive, extend love, and care. We hope to bring about what Howard Thurman calls the "Beloved Community." We intend to address issues of equality in a community effort, confronting social justice, and issues of inequality in a divided society. Per God's plan, we endeavor to speak truth to power, provide a pathway to healing, be responsive to the needs of equality, faith, poverty, and the issue of race in the face of diversity in the Public Square. We are called to provide a prophetic voice and vision of a different world where everyone is free to worship in diversity. This is the theologian's role of being active, committed, and in communication in all aspects of justice: social, political, economic, psychological, and spiritual interaction within the public arena.