Christina Hayes

Christina Hayes is the Director of Operations at Journey Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

Journey Church started in 2007 with the mission to develop and deploy disciples of Jesus Christ so that every man, woman, and child has multiple opportunities to see, hear, and respond to the Gospel.

Since then, Journey Church has grown exponentially — from the small group of family and friends meeting in a living room to the thriving church body located in the heart of Charleston. 

The Challenge

Journey Church faced the common challenge of thriving churches — as their congregation grew, the complexity of their finances grew right alongside them. They didn’t realize just how complex their books had gotten until their previous bookkeeper put in her two weeks' notice. 

“As she was leaving, we realized she knew enough for when we were small,” Christina says, “But we had grown so much that as we started diving into the books a little bit more after she left, we were left thinking, ‘What has she done?’ 

“So we knew we needed somebody that had some experience and expertise – and we needed them fast. We didn't have time to go out and do the whole interview process for local people and pay for somebody to come live here or whatever. It was one of those things where my boss basically said, ‘We don't need them to be here, we just need them to be good at their job.’”

“I think a lot of what my boss and I were looking for was the knowledge that somebody else was looking at things and making sure we weren't screwing it up — making sure that we were staying above board and that we were doing things the way we were supposed to because it wasn't either of our direct areas of expertise.

“We both knew enough to say, ‘I don't think that's right, but I don't know how to do it.’”

Knowing she needed someone with experience and expertise — and that she needed them quickly — Christina reached out to BELAY on behalf of Journey Church.

The Solution

“Trisha was our first [BELAY] Bookkeeper, and she was phenomenal. Her onboarding was great. She fit right into our team, and BELAY did a great job of pairing our personalities together well.” 

“The immediate relief was knowing that we have confidence that this person knows what they're doing and we can rely on them and not have to stress out researching laws and stuff about how we do accounting.”

In addition to the relief of having a financial expert on staff, Christina — along with the other staff members at Journey Church — began to experience the time-saving benefits of Trisha’s operations expertise as well.

“We got expense reports with our credit cards digitized, which was so good. Prior to Trisha, each employee would handwrite their purchases and then turn in their stack of stapled receipts on paper and then put them on QuickBooks. It was insane. 

“So that was a big help that we didn't even know we needed but as soon as it happened, it was wonderful. There've been a couple systems and processes like that. Bill.com obviously, and digitizing a lot of that check writing and stuff. We would handwrite all of our checks previously, and now 95% of them are through Bill.com. 

“I very rarely touch QuickBooks now unless I'm looking at a report, and I can just pull that up and see what I need. So that's very nice.”

Not only did Trisha help the Journey Church team streamline their processes, but she was also able to partner with Christina as she expanded her own role and learned more about the financial side of a growing organization. 

“I am still learning a lot of the finance stuff in the process of getting my MBA, and I know enough, but not a ton. Trisha was also learning stuff about us and churches as she went, so I never felt stupid asking questions. She was like, ‘Ah, that's a great question. Let me do some research.’ 

“It helped not to immediately be paired with somebody who was like, ‘That's a dumb question.’ She was very kind and caring and patient with me as I was learning the ropes, and she was also learning the ropes of our church. She was super responsive with email, which I needed during that season for sure.”

Trisha went on to work with Journey Church for years and when it came time for her to transition into a new role, she set up her successors with everything they needed to continue BELAY’s excellent service.

“When Trisha passed everything off, she did a great job of making a lot of notes and tutorials to pass off to the next Bookkeeper. Trisha was available to the new Bookkeepers to answer any questions as we ran into stuff.”

While Christina still had to onboard her new Bookkeepers, Trisha was invested in making the process as seamless as possible. 

“I would say, ‘I really don't remember how Trisha did that and why she did that. Can you call her?’ They were like, ‘Absolutely.’ So the transition was as smooth as it could be for a transition.

Journey Church’s current BELAY Bookkeeper Tiffany has already helped broaden their perspective on the world of church finances due to her prior experience in the industry. 

“A couple of Tiffany’s other clients are churches as well, so she has the chance to say, ‘Hey, this is how this other church does things and maybe you guys could think about this.’ That helps me realize what is a possibility. Sometimes, I’ll have no idea that a software or certain process even exists.

“So I think that's the biggest help as we grow — knowing we won’t get to the place where we were when we started with BELAY when we had grown but were stuck in old patterns and old ways. With Tiffany, we have outside resources and outside eyes looking at our systems to say, ‘Why do you do it that way?’
 
With time, Christina has delegated several time-consuming tasks to Tiffany including bookkeeping, payroll, and budget maintenance.

“For me, a lot of it is just the confidence that we're doing it right as we grow, that we're not screwing stuff up, and that we have an outside third-party wisdom on our council."

One of the ways BELAY offers Christina this peace of mind is through the continuous support Tiffany is given as a BELAY Bookkeeper. 

“Knowing that Tiffany is supported, that BELAY keeps her trained and up to date on laws that are changing and all that stuff is so helpful. Like, I don't have to go to a class about the new law changes in payroll this year. Just having somebody that you're confident is doing the training, doing the learning, and constantly growing is wonderful.”

The Result

Christina would say that Journey Church saw results from their partnership with BELAY immediately. 

“I mean just in terms of budget and finance, we could not have hired somebody with their level of expertise that lived here and worked in-office with us for that price. It would not have happened. So just in the first couple of months, being able to save on payroll but also increase the level of expertise that we had on our team was invaluable.”

In addition to seeing the benefits of BELAY through the church’s financial health, Christina has seen the impact the partnership has had on her ability to focus on what matters in her work.  

“Being able to put people first is one of the biggest benefits of working with BELAY. It’s knowing that I have more time in my schedule to actually sit with people, talk with people, and value our employees and our congregation without feeling like I have a seriously long list of things to do. 

“And then I think I having the ability and time to think big-picture vision strategy where you can't do that if you're stuck in the weeds all day.”

That’s BELAY’s goal — getting you out of the weeds and back to what matters most.