The meeting was hosted by the National Association of Evangelicals in the US and Micah Challenge, the global movement of Christians dedicated to seeing the Millennium Development Goals to halve extreme poverty become a reality by the target date of 2015.
During the Global Leaders Forum that followed the meeting with Mr Ban, US evangelicals affirmed their full commitment to work with other Christians around the world as part of Micah Challenge.
Christian Today caught up with Rev Edwards to find out what significance the meetings with Mr Ban and the US evangelicals had for the progress of the Micah Challenge movement.
CT: Ban Ki-Moon has been very positive about Micah Challenge and the work of evangelicals and churches around the world on poverty. It must be very encouraging for you.
JE: Anything that comes out of the evangelical stable normally incites cynicism and scepticism at best and hilarity at worst, so to actually have the Secretary General of the UN saying that a group like the Micah Challenge is a serious critical partner in the enterprise to reduce absolute poverty is just great news.
CT: There are whispers of a new activism and a new era for evangelicals and their working together with governments and political bodies like the UN. Do you feel that same change?
JE: Yes I do. I've spoken to a number of key leaders like Jim Wallace and Richard Cizik - the veterans of persuasion - and to hear those guys, who have been pushing at closed doors for so long, say that something is changing is just wonderful. For the North American Evangelical Alliance to come together with the young kid on the block, Micah Challenge, and to invite the Secretary General of the UN to a meeting of senior evangelicals in the US definitely signals a wind change.
CT: Evangelicals in the US have been a little slow to get behind Micah Challenge. Now that they have expressed their full commitment, do you feel it will radically change the way that Micah Challenge moves forward?
JE: I think so. I think the problem with America is that it is so large that it is very insular. Any nation which has a major sporting event with all-American teams and calls it an 'international' has serious problems with its foreign policy! If you have that kind of attitude, the extent to which other experiences can come crashing in on you and enlarge your world is bound to make a difference.
Having foreign speakers on the platform was very important symbolism. This was saying to America there is a world out there beyond the US that has something to say to you and something to teach you and that is very important. The extent to which the US can do that is the extent to which we will accelerate the change in attitude in the rest of the world.
