Jack & Sarah Winterburn

We want to help and encourage the French church, to learn and grow as we work alongside local Christians, and to share the gospel with those around us.

Jack and Sarah grew up in South London, met while studying in Durham, and have both had a heart for overseas mission since their teenage years. In total they spent 10 years there, working as church interns and as secondary school teachers. After a period of discernment and preparation including studying at All Nations Christian College, (where their son Benjamin was born), in 2021 they were sent by Kings Church Durham to serve as missionaries in France. They began by spending almost four years shadowing and learning from an ECM missionary couple in Tours, France (the Van Eijdens) exploring different ministry areas, including preaching, serving in a local charity organisation, worship leading, ecumenical dialogue, youthwork, planning short term mission weeks, and baptism preparation. 

In September 2025 they moved to Saint Brieuc in Brittany to begin a new phase of ministry serving as the pastoral couple in a church in Brittany. Jack as the named pastor will be the main preacher at the church and will lead the church council, while Sarah, as pastoral assistant, will be responsible for youth work and involved in ecumenical dialogue, worship ministry, event planning, as well as occasional preaching. They are keen to equip local people to lead and serve in different ministry areas and see God's kingdom grow as more people hear about and respond to the Good News of Jesus. During this next phase of ministry, Sarah will also continue with some other responsibilities within ECM, which consists mostly of safeguarding (for ECM France and also in her role as assistant safeguarding lead for ECM International).

"We are still learning about this new church and the town we have moved to. The area we are in has beautiful countryside and coastline, whereas the town centre is quite run down. One slightly worrying statistic is that in Cotes d'Armor, there is twice the national suicide rate (see article below).  Brittany is anecdotally known for occult practices, as well as for having a higher proportion of practicing Catholics than most other parts of France. Although Brittany is not very multi-cultural, it seems that Saint Brieuc is relatively ethnically diverse (France does not provide statistics on ethnicity) which brings both richness and challenge."

https://www.lemonde.fr/les-decodeurs/article/2016/02/09/quelle-region-et-quel-departement-sont-les-plus-touches-par-le-suicide_4861805_4355770.html