Rob Shepherd recently hosted a holiday dinner But there’s a new twist: soup.

The Virginia pastor even coined a holiday name for his gathering.

“Thomas was a fun gathering for us with the small church group,” Shepard said in an interview with Fox News Digital. “We meet weekly for Bible study; this is our Christmas party As a group. “

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Normally, the group would meet for a meal, but this year they were open to innovative ideas, he said.

“My wife is an educator and she is against everyone bringing a soup Share,” recalled Sheppard, lead pastor of Next Level Church in Yorktown, Virginia.

Virginia pastor Rob Shepherd said his wife, Monica (left), came up with the idea of ​​serving soup potlucks for their annual church group holiday gathering. (Rob Shepherd)

This idea is a winner. But the next question is how guests will serve soup at a potluck party.

This led to another great idea.

“My wife also agreed to bring muffin tins to hold soup cups so it’s easy to sample a variety of soups,” Shepard said. “There were six couples in our group, so we had five different soups and one couple brought dessert.”

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Turns out muffin tins are a clever serving idea Soup options: Tomato, vegetable, broccoli cheese, chorizo ​​tortellini and chicken tortillas.

“They’re all delicious, but my favorite is the broccoli cheese soup,” Shepard said.

Shepherd was so happy with the potluck that he decided to share the idea on social media.

Muffin tins are used to hold soup cups at holiday dinners. (Rob Shepherd)

“There can be a lot of negative content online, and one of my goals is to provide positive content,” he said.

Shepherd said he started using TikTok in 2020 “just because I had more free time.”

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“I post games, recipes and family fun,” Shepard said.

His soup post is hot.

“I didn’t expect it to go viral. There were 3 million views on TikTok and 3.9 million views on Instagram,” Shepard told Fox News Digital last week.

before posting video On Instagram, he has 1,500 followers. After the video was posted, the number of followers jumped to 15,000.

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“I’m shocked by the response,” he said.

Rob Shepherd hosts a holiday soup potluck party with his church group with five options: tomato, vegetable, broccoli cheese, sausage dumplings and chicken tortillas. (Rob Shepherd)

The post had thousands of comments, but Sheppard cited two of his favorites.

“What a cheap, easy, fun way to get the family together and I’m so frustrated,” @kodarodriguez97 wrote.

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“This is my dream. Soup is my favorite food. I need new friends,” @BRXJ wrote.

Not only was Shepard excited about how popular his soup potluck theme was, he was also surprised by the reach of his posts.

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“I keep getting messages from friends whose friends have sent me soup videos and they’re excited to let their friends know they know me in real life,” Shepherd said.

“The whole thing was fun.”