A lot of wood from which to make church pews? (4,4)
I believe the answer is:
good deal
'a lot of wood from which to make church pews?' is the definition.
'good deal' can be an answer for 'a lot' ('good deal' can be a synonym of 'lot'). I'm not certain of the rest of the definition.
'a lot of wood' is the wordplay.
'a lot of' becomes 'good' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'wood' becomes 'deal' (deal is a kind of wood).
'good'+'deal'='GOOD DEAL'
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for good deal that I've seen before include "A lot may" , "Large number" , "satisfactory transaction" .)