Low Sunday Attendance

After seven weeks of painting, I've decided to do something different this week. It's been a while since I got my pens out and did a cartoon, but here's one for Low Sunday. Feel free to use it - but mention my name...

I was thinking about the fact that lots of people are on holiday and attendance is usually low. Not a good time therefore for a vicar to study statistics. How meaningful are our figures? When ministers boast about their congregations are they aware of seasonal factors?

On an aside, I'm beginning to wonder if social and cultural factors are more significant in church growth (and decline) than we clergy would like to admit. Is church growth an emergent property of social networks? If so, our 'growth strategies' may be little more than a way of tracking holiday habits...