Joachim Dierks, born in Bremen in 1956, received piano lessons from an elderly village school teacher at the age of 8 – which aroused only moderate enthusiasm in him. He was more interested in the church organ and then, from the mid-1970s, in the acoustic music wave, the corresponding instruments: Bass, folk-picking guitar, bluegrass mandolin and banjo.

When he joined the parish in Marienhafe/Ostfriesland in 1983, piano playing was reactivated: NGL was on the programme in spiritual form, blues and rock in secular form.

In 1988, he moved to the vocational school ministry, first to Alfeld and then to Hanover. Here, too, music played a major role in his professional life in the form of school band supervision and workshops. And the Hammond B3 became a constant companion in various blues bands.

From 2002 to March 2019, he was a pastor at the gospel church in Hanover, during which time he focussed almost exclusively on gospel music. In addition to accompanying the gospel choirs, he was particularly keen to combine gospel and worship music with the church service and its liturgy. During this time, he created a number of compositions, worship service designs, lectures and workshops (including regularly at gospel church conferences) on this topic.

With Songs of the Bible, he has published the most important of his compositions – all of which have a biblical reference. The diversity of his musical CV can be clearly felt here in the different styles of the songs. He also made a significant contribution to the collection Glory to God!

Joachim Dierks has been a retired pastor since March 2019, but not inactive. During the coronavirus crisis, he began publishing the gospel service format online.