The Bible Belt is a region of the United States and Canada where, as of last year, the number of religious groups in the area was roughly twice the national average.
The area is home to many evangelical Christian groups, which are often persecuted by religious conservatives, and there are also many African American and Hispanic groups.
One such group, the Christian Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LCMS), is known for its activism against the Dakota Access pipeline, which it opposes because it would disturb sacred burial grounds for Native Americans.
As a result, many people in the region fear that the LCMS could be targeted for persecution.
But some of the religious groups that operate in the belt, such as the Seventh-day Adventist Church, are thriving.
One of its most famous leaders, the Reverend Jerry Falwell Jr., is a prominent member of President Donald Trump’s evangelical advisory council.
“If you look at the way that evangelical Christianity has grown in this country, it’s been phenomenal,” said Rob Schmick, president of the American Baptist Association of Southern California (AAAS Southern California).
“And we’ve got a lot of people who have really built up a church presence, and we have a lot who have built up churches.”
The Adventist church’s membership has grown from 3,500 to about 12,000 members in the past decade.
According to Schmicky, there are now more than 100,000 evangelical Christians in Southern California, up from just 5,000 in 2005.
But Schmicker, a professor at the University of Southern Florida and the author of The Gospel of Matthew: How the Bible Became the Faith of the World, also pointed out that in the early years of the Christian church, it was predominantly white.
“I think you’ve seen an explosion of black evangelical churches, but also, at the same time, a lot more Latinos,” Schmickle said.
“So, the growth has been remarkable.”
In recent years, the Adventist denomination has been struggling financially.
In 2014, the church’s revenue dropped from about $15 million in 2005 to $10 million in 2015.
And in 2017, the denomination announced that its board of directors would be replaced by a committee of evangelical pastors.
In 2018, a major overhaul of its website went ahead, and in 2018, the LCM was granted a license to operate a new building in the city of Omaha, Nebraska.
According of the LCMC website, the organization has been in operation for over 70 years.
According the LCLM’s mission statement, the mission of the church is “to spread the Gospel of Jesus to the world through the Bible and through our own ministry of evangelism.”
According to the LCMT’s mission and website, it “is committed to a Christian worldview, based on the Bible, in which Jesus Christ is our Lord and Savior.”
“I don’t think there’s any other denomination that’s as diverse and has as many branches of the faith as the LCMW,” Schmitt said.
The LCM and the LCMB are two of the most popular groups to open their offices in the US.
“They’re very well-respected and well-funded,” Schmit said.
In 2017, two different Christian groups opened their doors in Omaha: the LCAM and the Evangelical Association of Omaha.
Both of those groups received support from the LCMA, which has a long history of providing grants to churches and ministries.
“The LCMA is always looking to support the ministry, to make sure that it’s growing,” Schimmick said.
Another group that is growing is the National Baptist Convention (NAS).
The NAS is a not-for-profit organisation that has been working to expand its reach.
Its president, Rev. James Robison, recently told the Associated Press that his church’s expansion in the Omaha area has been supported by about $500,000 from the NAS and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Robison also said that the NAS has received some $1 million in donations from various people over the years.
The NAS has also worked closely with other evangelical groups.
In 2016, the NAS’s board of trustees awarded an honorary degree to a prominent evangelical pastor.
In 2015, the US Conference of Catholic Bishops awarded an award to a local pastor for his work promoting interreligious dialogue.
In January, the board of the National Council of Churches awarded the award to another prominent evangelical preacher.
“We have an opportunity to be a part of the future of the NAS, and that’s a great gift,” Robison said.
But while the NAS is certainly making a name for itself in the country, there is still a long way to go.
According a report by the Pew Research Center, the proportion of Americans who identify as Christian in the United Kingdom is about the same as in the rest of the world.
According on the Pew report, the percentage of Christians in the UK is approximately 12