Referees shoulder the brunt of opposition from both sides. Interjected into the contest to keep peace, they have a job not many envy.

Pastors regularly find they, too, must blow the whistle and make an uncompromising call-but not on sports fields. Pastors end up in the middle of volatile domestic squabbles, where emotions run high and outsiders fear to tread. Sometimes standard counseling procedures may be impossible to apply.

How do pastors best intervene in family problems, which so many professionals consider no-win situations? Are there effective approaches to these delicate dilemmas?

To find out, LEADERSHIP editors Marshall Shelley and Jim Berkley met with four Ohio pastors who know the peril of refereeing domestic problems:

-Don Engram of Church of the Open Door in the Cleveland suburb of Elyria

-Joel Hempel of Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Cincinnati's inner city

-Jerry Kirk of College Hill Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati

-Paul Tropf of Armstrong Chapel ...