The First 50: Fellowship Through the Years

Episode 26 | Natalie Caruso

Some stories make more sense when you start at the beginning... and Natalie Caruso's is one of them. In this episode of The First 50, Natalie shares how her upbringing, her relationship with Alex, and the journey that brought them to Fellowship City Hudson all connect in ways she couldn't have seen coming. She reflects on finding community, helping build something meaningful in the earliest days of the Hudson campus, and the beautiful story of how Atlas became part of their family. It's an honest conversation about faith, marriage, belonging, and adoption... and what it looks like when God quietly shapes a life through the people and places He puts in your path.

Episode 25 | Andrew and Kimberly Pfeifer

What started in a living room… a small group of people gathering for prayer, worship, conversation, and community… eventually became the foundation for Fellowship City Hudson. In this episode of The First 50, Andrew and Kimberly Pfeifer reflect on the years of quiet faithfulness, meaningful relationships, and open-door living that prepared them to help launch a campus and build a deeply connected church family. They share honestly about faith, marriage, family, and what it meant to open their home and their lives during the earliest days of Hudson. Their story is a reminder that the best things God builds rarely start with a strategy. They start with people willing to create space for others, and Andrew and Kimberly did exactly that. Church has never simply been about buildings. At its best, it’s about people opening their lives so others can experience faith, family, and belonging together.

Episode 24 | Joan Nosal

In this episode of The First 50, we see how Joan Nosal’s story became woven deeply into the fabric of Fellowship City Church, not through titles or a platform, but through decades of faithful service, hospitality, and genuine investment in people. Joan reflects on her early years, her marriage to Bob, and how the two of them became a quiet anchor for couples, families, and friendships across generations. She shares openly about mentoring, hospitality, loss, grief, and what it looks like to keep living with purpose and joy through life’s hardest seasons. And her story is still very much being written, with a continuing heart for people, relationships, and mission that hasn’t slowed down. This conversation is for anyone who has been impacted by Joan and Bob’s lives, and for anyone who needs a reminder that the most lasting legacies are often built quietly, through faithfulness, one person at a time.

Episode 23 | Rick and Jill Mlakar

In this episode, we sit down with Rick and Jill Mlakar to hear their story marked by hardship, honesty, and the relentless faithfulness of God. Rick shares openly about seasons of anxiety, depression, addiction, spiritual drifting, and relapse, along with how God continued pursuing him even in the darkest moments of his story. Jill reflects on what it looked like to walk through those seasons as a couple, and how grace, authentic community, and faithful relationships helped carry them both toward healing and restoration. The conversation also explores how Fellowship City Church became part of their story, and the role that honesty and belonging played in the long road back. If you or someone you love has ever felt beyond reach, this conversation is for you. This episode is a reminder that no season is beyond the reach of God's grace and that restoration is possible even when life feels completely broken.

Episode 22 | Dave Lynden

In this episode, we sit down with former Fellowship Senior Pastor Dave Lynden, a pastor whose path to Fellowship began with a phone call he never saw coming. Dave reflects on his early years, coming to faith, and the people God used to shape a deep love for Scripture and a calling to ministry. He shares openly about seasons of uncertainty, what it looked like to follow God's direction one step at a time, and how God often uses unexpected seasons to shape us more deeply than we realize. The conversation traces Dave's unexpected journey from serving in Dayton to eventually becoming Senior Pastor at Fellowship, and what that season of leadership taught him about calling, family, and trusting God when the next step isn't fully clear. Dave also shares openly about a significant health scare just eighteen months ago, and how that season deepened his faith, reshaped his perspective, and reminded him that God's faithfulness doesn't change when life takes an unexpected turn. This episode is a reminder that God is often doing His deepest work in the seasons we least expect.