A statue honoring renowned evangelist Billy Graham will soon replace one of a former governor in the U.S. Capitol’s National Statuary Hall Collection.

North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill Friday to honor Graham with a statue in the nation’s capitol building, one of two statues each state selects for the National Statuary Hall Collection, BillyGraham.org reports.

The Graham statue will replace a statue of former North Carolina Gov. Charles Aycock, whose likeness has been on display since 1932. McCrory signed the bill at the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte, North Carolina Friday with numerous members of the Graham family in attendance, including son Franklin Graham, grandsons Will and Roy Graham, sister Jean Graham Ford and her husband Leighton, as well as Graham’s nephew Mel Graham and niece Cathie Bowers, according to the site.

McCrory told those in attendance “this honor is not something the Graham family asked for.

“We think Dr. Graham represents the soul of North Carolina,” he said.

McCrory approved the measure after the state’s lawmakers proposed to honor Graham for a long list of good works. The legislation also details Graham’s life history and impact on the world, in general.

Graham was born in 1918 on a dairy farm in Charlotte and attended the Florida Bible Institute in the late 1930s. After his graduation Graham worked for The Village Church in Western Springs, Illinois, before taking on roles as a youth and military minister from 1945 to 1950. He was also president of Northwestern Schools, a liberal arts college, from 1947 to 1952.

Graham rose to prominence after World War II through “a series of crusades” after the war in which he preached throughout the United States and Europe, and has maintained an ever growing ministry through the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association since 1950.

“(O)ver the years, Reverend Graham has preached to live audiences of nearly 215 million people in more than 185 countries and territories and has preached to an estimated 2.2 billion people through television and technology,” according to the bill, which also noted Graham’s work has spanned 12 presidents, many of whom relied on his counsel.

“Reverend Graham has also counseled world leaders and has participated in many historic occasions, and has been called upon as the ‘nation’s pastor’ during times of national crisis,” the bill read. “He spoke at the National Cathedral service in Washington, D.C., three days after the 9/11 attack in 2001, as the nation and world watched and listened.”

“There have been many great North Carolinians, but few have impacted the world more than Billy Graham,” according to the legislation.

“I think for future generations, it’s not only an honor for the families, but I think it’s kind of a tint-peg that you put in the ground, so other generations can see and understand what Billy Graham believed and what he preached,” Franklin Graham said, according to Fox 46.

McCrory described Graham as “someone who understands that the attention should not be on himself, despite the pulpit that he’s had across the world for so many decades. But the focus should be on God. Billy Graham never lost that focus.

“And he’s a role model for so many of us …”

Billy Graham is 96 years old and did not attend the bill signing. Dozens of his followers, however, were on hand to witness the dedication, though they didn’t know the ceremony was taking place.

About 40 guests who attended “showed up from cities across the country to tour the free attraction and ended up watching Governor McCrory sign the bill into law,” BillyGraham.org reports.

McCrory said lawmakers choose Graham to serve as a “moral compass” for future generations to learn from Graham’s humility, compassion and unwavering commitment to God’s word.

“This is the best of North Carolina,” McCrory said. “This is the best of our nation. This is the best of our world.”

Fox 46 reports there’s already at least one statue of Graham – a larger than life 9-foot-tall bronze figure – in Nashville, Tennessee.