The Activist for Activists. Author of Make a Difference with Mental Health Activism and The Happy Activist: Journey the 5-Step Activism Path to Focus Your Passion and Change the World. Teacher, Psychologist, Environmental Activist, Animal Lover.
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Last Updated on September 24, 2025
Do you need nudging sometimes?
Did you ever read a book all the way through even though by page 10 you hated it? A nudge could help you set it down.
Do you ever skip exercising even though you know you need it? Sometimes we need a nudge to exercise.
Have you made a will? You are going to die eventually. I’m nudging you–you should have a will.
Why don’t we behave rationally?
We know what we should do, so why don’t we? Why we don’t behave rationally is a focus of a new branch of science called behavioral economics that examines why people don’t always act as logic dictates. Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in 2017 for his work in this field; you can read about it in the 2008 book Nudge: improving decisions about health, wealth, and happiness, co-written with Cass Sunstein.
Research on nudging focuses on changing the conditions of choice to encourage people to act more rationally. For example, Thaler researched employee behavior when offered a company match for their 401k. Even though this is free money – you put in 3% of your salary, for example, and the company gives you a 3% match – a small percentage of people sign up for it.
Thaler changed the default choice conditions. Instead of the default that employees had to opt-in to get the match, employees were automatically enrolled in the plan with the choice to opt out. A huge percentage of employees kept the default option and did not opt out. These employees were nudged toward rational behavior.
How to apply nudging in a faith community
In a faith community, we agree to give of our time, talent, and treasure. It feels good because we recognize the need to do our part, as we are able, to support the health of the congregation. As Patrick O’Neill (2014) writes,
By what we do here, by what we contribute each in our own way here, by the people we become here, by the ideals and the visions we embrace and follow, by the families that we help shape in this church – we increase the store of love and justice in this world.
We have different circumstances; some people may be less able to give money and so step up their volunteer hours. Other might have a busy life outside of the church and thus focus on treasure instead of volunteer hours. Some provide a unique talent-based contribution by giving lovely music or cooking treats. A few extraordinary people do all three.
When we stand in front of the congregation as they welcome us into the faith community, we believe our pledge to give our time, talent, and treasure. And then life gets in the way.
So what if we nudge you a bit?
Nudge more contribution of Time
Here is an example of how we might use nudging to encourage more contribution of Time:
Instead of the default that you sign up to be an usher, what if the default was that everyone would be assigned to usher once a year? If you didn’t want to usher, you could switch jobs or decline altogether.
Nudge more contribution of Talent
A congregation is awash with Talent – writers, singer, bakers, knitters, speakers, weavers, musicians, and caregivers. It is always a pleasure when those talents are shared, especially in a service.
What if, instead of someone asking you to help with a service, the default was that everyone is assigned to help with one service a year? You could decide how to give your talent, or you could decline.
Nudge more contribution of Treasure
Stewardship of a congregation means contributing Treasure to the vital work of the church. Pledges are a significant source of support, and so goal achievement depends on the results of each year’s campaign. To make it easier for leaders to plan, what if, instead of the default of filling out a pledge form each year your default was last year’s pledge plus a certain percent? You could choose to decrease this pledge, increase it, or not pledge at all.
You still have choices
Although the defaults are changed, you still have choices.
If this worked according to Thaler’s research findings, we should see more volunteering and less need for wrangling people into volunteer slots.
We should see more gifts of talent being offered to the congregation.
We should see higher pledge numbers and more support for the mission.
Nudging us in the right direction reminds us of our obligations to each other and to what we accomplish together. As O’Neill says,
We work for what we love. We invest in what we love. We try to become worthy of what we love and of the people we love. We give our time, our energies, our attention and our resources so that what we love may thrive.
Resources
O’Neill, Patrick T. 2014. “What we love, we empower.” In Bless the Imperfect: Meditations for Congregational Leaders. Kathleen Montgomery, Ed. Boston, MA: Skinner House.
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