no wonder you are having trouble finding finding a church compatible with your faith journey. What I find is that most all are VERY conservative. The only church I would even look at would be the Episc church(es) , the UU, or the American Baptist church. There are plenty of Baptist churches but if they are not 'American Baptist', then I'd assume they would be too conservative (for my taste).
I don't see any Lutheran (ELCA) there...the others are LCMS which I call the Misery Synod (and it has become very militantly anti-abortion and anti-woman ministers) The rest with various innocuous names would be too conservative, I would guess, be it Calvary Chapel, Assemblies of God, Victory, etc.
I tend to look out of the box, which means, if I found a compatible church an hour away, I definitely would check it out. Not that I would go every week, maybe once a month and then one/only of the positive results of covid, many churches still live-stream their services. Some churches have a once-per-month potluck...that's the Sunday I would attend and bring one of those dishes to pass which makes THEM remember YOU.
San Diego and Yuma have to have some progressive/liberal churches but I would look at the Palm Springs area. Now that's a liberal area, believe it or not.
On Facebook, check out the recorded livestream of 'Metropolitan Community Church of the Coachella Valley' (Church for All Souls) for an Anglo-Catholic flavor with great sermons & great music. Check out 'Hope Lutheran Church' ELCA of Palm Desert. Or 'St. Margaret's Episc. Church' of Palm Desert- that's a big church, great music, would easily would fit into a big city like Chicago.
I apologize for such a lengthy posting but your search piqued my interest, because it is also my search.
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