The Relevance of University Music Curricula to the Requirements of Church Music Job Market in Kenya.

In the prevailing global church music job market, church worship ministers or music directors are on high demand as they play a crucial role in church liturgy and other church musical events.  Globally, many universities offer programmes on music training and pastoral leadership. In Kenya, such training is predominantly in theological schools with few universities offering such programmes. Currently, there is a growing interest of church musicians in Kenya due to the need to spread the gospel beyond the church walls and to promote ecumenism. For example, churches participate in church crusades, church concerts, and inter-churches music festivals. This strengthens the need for church worship ministers with music and leadership training. Universities in Kenya are, therefore, obligated to offer church music programmes that will enable these worship ministers to fit in the current job market. The discourse on church music, though, is rare in Kenya hence limited literature on the same. The study had an objective of establishing the relevance of university music curricula to the requirements of church music job market in Kenya. Elliot's Praxial theory underpinned the study. The study found out that universities are not keen to include music programmes that are relevant to the music job market. The Simple Matching Coefficient (SMC) of university X and Y music curricula to the requirements of church music job market was 0.00. Both universities did not have a church music program hence missing all the requirements of the given job market. The study recommends that there is a need to develop church music programmes in universities in Kenya, and this can be done in collaboration with the Schools of Theology at the university.