When one serves in Christian ministry, one's ultimate goal is to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit and go where ever God wants him/her to go. So my short, medium, and long term goal was to do the will of God and serve Him where ever he wanted me to.
Other goals also depend on what one is doing in the ministry. For example, I was a Youth Minister at one point. My goal was to see the church I was at have a vibrant and growing youth ministry that was making an impact. When I came to the church, there was about 5 or 6 active youth attending. When I left, we had around 50 in the youth group and we were going on numerous retreats and mission trips. I took this youth group filled with small town rural kids to Chicago to do inner-city missions. It really opened their eyes to the plight of many Americans.
So for one who is a Youth Minister, their long term goal is to have a vibrant ministry in this field. Most would like to lead large youth groups at large churches, but they usually have to work up to this. Some are content in staying at one church for a long time. If one is a Pastor, goals revolve around strengthening the church the Pastor is at. Some Pastors want to move into larger churches, which give them more opportunity for a larger impact (and influence). Others are happy with being at small churches.
So, individual goals are very diverse for those in the ministry.
I have been very lucky. I received financial support from people in my home church when I attended seminary which helped. For law school, I received a full tuition and book scholarship. I did have to borrow loans for my undergrad education and also a bit for my theology education. But I know many people who are worse off when it comes to educational debt than I am.
And I absolutely do not think my education was a false or hollow pursuit. I learned so much from my education. I actually benefited in law school from the philosophical courses I took when I was studying theology. As I stated before, it use to be very common for men to gain degrees in both theology and law, regardless if they planned on entering the ministry.
My theology degrees have returned much to my quality of life and I am very grateful for my theology degrees. What I learned during that course of study still benefits me to this day. Not a waste at all.
When did I ever accuse you of engaging Asian prostitutes? I don't recall every talking to you about that. Maybe I did, but could you provide the quote. I think you may have me confused with someone else.
I never made disparaging remarks about your Russian experiences. I just didn't accept your claim that you are immediately more of an expert on issues related to Russia than everyone else or that we must accept what you say about Russia as being 100% correct. I also pulled your chain some about being a Putin lover lol! I think it is great that you are well traveled and spent time out of the USA. But, none of that means you are always right on everything and everyone else is wrong if they disagree with you.
As for me being a "good Christian." I'll leave that for God to judge. I am far from perfect, as are we all. I never claim to be perfect or without sin.