Park

The second question, have you found a church, is in the process of being answered. There are about half a dozen churches in the area which I hope to visit. Unfortunately, that means it will take 6 weeks to visit them all.
The first one on the list was Park Community Church. It was started by some people by Moody and is geared towards the younger crowd. I went to the 11 AM service and really enjoyed both the music and the sermon. The pastor had a very challenging text (1 Cor 14) in his pass-through of 1 Corinthians. He handled it very well: sticking to solid teachings, gearing it toward a more contemporary audience, being energetic (especially for this being the 2nd service of the day), and having some solid applications. In talking with some people, there were some activities for "new people" after the 5:30 service. It is this service which the younger crowd tends to attend, anyway (the 11 AM service was more 30-somethings, if that gives you an indication of the youth).
So I eagerly trekked to the 5:30 service. Knowing the sermon and music would be the same, I expected to be a bit bored, but ready to see how this service was different (and expectant towards the newcomers get-together). The music was even better this time, perhaps because I started learning the songs. As for the message, I was asking myself during this sermon "Did I already hear this?" in a truly questioning tone. So there must be some combination of:
- Me not being a good churchmember and not paying attention during the first service
- There being a lot to the sermon, with the first time me missing the trees for the forest, so to speak
- The pastor being engaging enough so as to keep me interested
- The pastor doing a great job in knowing his audience, in that even though the main content was the same, being with a different audience felt completely fresh

So Park has been going quite well. I returned yesterday and had another good experience. The aspect of an evening service works great as well, because I can still attend Park while visiting other churches. Hopefully this does not make me a traitor.