Finding wood, leaving marble...

"It was claimed for Augustus Caesar that he found Rome a city of wood, and left it a city of marble. The pastor who succeeds in changing his people from a prayerless to a prayerful people, has done a greater work than did Augustus in changing a city from wood to marble. And, after all, this is the prime work of the preacher. Primarily, he is dealing with a prayerless people - with people whom it is said, "God is not in all their thoughts (Psalm 10:4)." Such a people he meets everywhere, and all the time. His main business is to turn them from being forgetful of God, from being devoid of faith, from being prayerless, so that they may become a people who habitually pray, who believe in God, remember him, and do his will. The preacher is not sent merely to induce men to join the church, nor merely to get them to do better. It is to get them to bray, to trust God, and to keep God ever before their eyes that they may not sin against him."
E.M. Bounds