Rob Shepherd recently hosted A.J Holiday food But with a new spin: soup.
A Virginia pastor even created a ceremonial name for his party.
“Soup-mas was a fun get-together for our little church group,” Shepherd told Fox News Digital in an interview. “We meet weekly for Bible study, and that was our goal birthday party “As a group.”
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He said the group usually prepares food, but this year they were open to innovative ideas.
“My wife, who is a teacher, brought up the idea of bringing everyone soup “To share,” recalls Shepherd, the lead pastor at Next Level Church in Yorktown, Virginia.
Virginia Pastor Rob Shepherd said his wife, Monica, left, came up with the idea for the soup for their annual church party. (Rob Shepherd)
It was the winning idea. But the next problem was how the guests would enjoy the soup at the potluck party.
This led to another great idea to cook.
“My wife shared the idea of bringing muffin tins to put the soup cups in so it would be easy to taste different types of soup,” Shepherd said. “There are six couples in our group – so we had five different types of soup, and one couple brought dessert.”
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Muffin tins prove to be a smart serving idea for Soup choices: Tomatoes, vegetables, broccoli cheese, sausage tortellini and chicken tortilla.
“They were all delicious, but my favorite was the broccoli cheese soup,” Shepherd said.
Shepherd was so happy with the food available that he decided to share the idea on social media.
Cake tins were used to hold soup cups during the holiday table. (Rob Shepherd)
“There can be a lot of negative things on the internet and one of my goals is to provide positive content,” he said.
Shepherd said he used TikTok in 2020 “simply because I had more time on my hands.”
This winter pot roast recipe is a big game dish with a “mushy” taste.
“I post games, recipes and family fun,” Shepherd said.
His soup was hot.
“I didn't expect it to spread this much,” Shepherd told Fox News Digital last week. “There are 3 million views on TikTok and 3.9 million on Instagram.”
Before publishing video On Instagram, he had 1,500 followers. After the video, he jumped to 15 thousand followers.
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“I was blown away by the response,” he said.
Rob Shepherd's holiday soup party with his church group included five selections — tomato, greens, 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 fun way to bring the family together, I'm so disappointed,” @kodarodriguez97 wrote.
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“This is my dream. Soup is my favorite food. I need new friends,” @BRXJ wrote.
Not only is Shepherd thrilled that his soup thread has been so well received, he's also surprised at how viral his post has become.
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“I constantly get messages from friends whose friends sent me the soup video, and they are so excited to let their friends know that they know me in real life,” Shepherd said.
“The whole thing was fun.”
