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Rob Shepherd recently hosted a holiday potluck but with a new spin: soup.
The Virginia pastor even created a festive name for his party.
“Soup-mas was a fun get-together with our small group from church,” Shepherd told Fox News Digital in an interview. “We meet weekly for a Bible study, and this was our Christmas party as a group.”
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Typically, he said, the group does a potluck, but this year they were open to innovative ideas.
“My wife, who is an educator, threw out the idea of everyone bringing a soup to share,” recalled Shepherd, who is lead pastor at Next Level Church in Yorktown, Virginia.
Virginia pastor Rob Shepherd said his wife, Monica, at left, came up with the idea of a soup potluck for their annual church group holiday party. (Rob Shepherd)
The idea was a winner. But the next issue was how guests were going to enjoy the soups at the potluck party.
That led to another great idea to be cooked up.
“My wife shared the idea of also bringing muffin tins to place cups of soup in so that it would be easy to sample the various soups,” Shepherd said. “There are six couples in our group — so we had five different soups, and one couple brought dessert.”
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The muffin tins proved a clever serving idea for the soup selections: tomato, vegetable, broccoli cheese, sausage tortellini and chicken tortilla.
“They all were delicious, but my favorite was the broccoli cheese soup,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd was so pleased with the potluck that he decided to share the idea on social media.
Muffin tins were used to hold the soup cups during the holiday potluck. (Rob Shepherd)
“There can be a lot of negativity online and one of my goals is to provide positive content,” he said.
Shepherd said he went on TikTok in 2020 “simply because I had more time on my hands.”
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“I post games, recipes and family fun,” Shepherd said.
And his soup post was hot.
“I did not expect it to go as viral as it has. There are 3 million views on TikTok and 3.9 million on Instagram,” Shepherd told Fox News Digital last week.
Before posting the video on Instagram, he had 1,500 followers. After the video, it jumped to 15,000 followers.
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“I’m blown away by the response,” he said.
Rob Shepherd’s holiday soup potluck party with his church group featured five selections – tomato, vegetable, broccoli cheese, sausage tortellini and chicken tortilla. (Rob Shepherd)
There were thousands of comments on the post, but Shepherd cited two of his favorites.
“Cheap, easy and a fun way to get the fam together, I’m so down,” wrote @kodarodriguez97.
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“This is my dream. Soup is my fave food. I need new friends,” wrote @BRXJ.
Not only is Shepherd thrilled that his soup potluck theme has been so well-received, he’s also surprised by the reach of his post.
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“I am continually sent messages from friends who have been sent the soup video by their friends, and they are very excited to let their friends know that they know me in real life,” Shepherd said.
“The whole thing has been fun.”
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