Find a Church

I would like to find a church to go to.  I have not actively been to a church in 12 years (not counting funerals and weddings of course).  I am seeking anyone's suggestions for places I could go.  I do have a couple requests.

1. It needs to a Protestant or similarly related church.  Specifically ruled out groups are Mormons, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Quakers, Amish, etc.  I’d like something less extreme than these.
2. I don't want to go to something that is close to Catholicism.  I find that the more formal and rigid the ceremony is, the more you end up just going through the motions.  This is kind of the same with my activities.  I usually don't just want to do the same activities day in and day out, week in and week out.  This also applies to my work - I always look for the one-off projects that I can do, instead of just being a trained monkey.
3. As much as I can get along with nearly any age group, I would like to find somewhere that has a lot of people my age.  I don't want to be in a congregation that is comprised solely of blue-hairs 
4. I request that I not be hassled when I miss weeks.  A lot of my athletic activities take place on Sundays.  Triathlons typically need a day when most people are off.  Weekends are usually it. 
5. I would not like to be at a place that interprets the Bible literally (this brings up one of my pet peeves - people who switch the definitions of literally and figuratively in everyday speech - they're opposites!).  I'd like to be at a place that understands that the Bible does not need to be taken word for word.  The Bible was not written down until a long time after the events that get described occur.  It was originally a series of stories passed from one generation to the next orally.  Ever play the telephone game as a kid?  You know the one where one person starts off by whispering a phrase in the second person's ear only once.  The second person then whispers what he thought he heard into the third person's ear, and so on down the line.  By the time you get to the end person, the phrase has totally changed.  It's possible that this same issue could have permeated into the creation of the Bible.
6. The 5th leads to the 6th: I want to find someplace that understands that I will look at many of their philosophies with a healthy dose of skepticism.  This is the way I have always been.  I may not agree with all of the positions offered by a specific denomination, and I’m okay with that.  I need a group that is willing to accept that I may not blindly follow their positions just because a pastor / priest / etc. states it as so. 
7. It needs to be within reasonable driving distance of Des Moines.  I’m not driving all the way to Minneapolis or St. Louis or even Omaha for a church service.

I could go into much more detail about experiences I’ve had with church activities and how they influenced me back as a kid, but I want to keep this post kinda short.

Please let me know if you have any comments about this post or any other post for that matter. 


Edit 2/1: My friend Adam recommended a few places for me to try out.  I went once but freezing rain kept me from going this past Sunday.  I'll try it again this upcoming Sunday.