Mennonite Weekly Review

ELKHART, Ind. — Though he kept it secret for 10 years, J. Nelson Kraybill now tells church and college groups he was responsible for a 1974 prank at Goshen College that earned the distinction of being the college’s Prank of the Century.

Nelson Kraybill, AMBS president and founding member of the MennoPrank Society, congratulates the society’s second member, Don Steider, after presenting him with the first installment of his million dollar prize, to be doled out one dollar each year as long as he lives. — Photo by Mary E. Klassen/AMBS

Kraybill, president of Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary, recounted the story of the prank again May 13 at the launching of the MennoPrank Society.

The society is inviting pranksters on all higher education campuses in the Mennonite church to join in the fun.

The Goshen College prank involved building a catapult that sent a pie flying up from the balcony of College Mennonite Church to hit the back of Paul Miller, an AMBS professor, who was speaking in the chapel service on the topic of demonology.

At the launch Kraybill also inducted Don Steider, AMBS director of maintenance, into the MennoPrank Society because of a prank he perpetrated at a recent event in Kraybill’s honor.

Knowing this inclination for horseplay, Steider and Nate Koets, AMBS assistant supervisor of maintenance, devised a plan to turn the tables on Kraybill at a banquet May 1. The seminary board, employees and spouses had gathered that evening to celebrate Kraybill’s presidency before he leaves AMBS this summer.

Toward the end of the program, Kraybill stepped to the lectern to speak. About 10 seconds later, he jumped back to reveal that his pants were soaked with water halfway between his belt and his knees, and water was dripping down his pant legs. The two pranksters had rigged a small pressurized water tank to spray a fine mist from a tube mounted on a shelf in the lectern.

The experience prompted Kraybill to establish the MennoPrank Society and to honor Steider by welcoming him into it.

“Given that Mennonites sometimes Take Ourselves Too Seriously and otherwise fail to celebrate the whimsical grace of God, MennoPrank Society was established to bring raucous laugher to the hallowed halls of Mennonite higher education institutions in North America,” the charter states.

The purpose is to “raise the standard of high jinks in the Anabaptist tradition, explore missional implications of pranksterism in a postmodern society and affirm outstanding acts of buffoonery.”