It is almost impossible to explain briefly how Mark Joseph Young is involved in Collision, and that's not really the point.  He writes almost all the music and arranges the rest; his involvement as a performer is detailed in the history of Collision.

Much can be learned about Mark over the Internet, as the web pages for which he has written the content number in the thousands.  In addition to this web site, he has published many freelance articles and several articles series.  Yet that would be a very time consuming process, so this will give a few essentials.

Growing up in Baptist churches, Mark accepted Christ in 1969, in response to a simple explanation of the gospel presented by his cousin Peter Grosso, a Presbyterian and now a minister.  A family relocation put him in a Presbyterian church that was very ecumenical, thus letting him become familiar with Lutherans, Episcopalians, and to a lesser degree Catholics, in shared Bible studies and other activities.  He also became involved peripherally in a local coffeehouse which was very much part of the Jesus Movement of the early 70s, and had connections with the Full Gospel Businessmen's Association.  He had been a musician as long as he could remember--his kindergarten teacher had commented on it, and by the time he finished high school he played a score of instruments and wrote choral works and works for concert band, some of which had been performed by school ensembles, and he had been twice accepted into All State Chorus.  It was not at all surprising that he had a band of one sort or another from the eighth grade onward, and at the end of 1972 what had been a precision rock band called BLT Down converted with a few personnel changes to being a Christian Rock Band under the name The Last Psalm.  It played through much of northern New Jersey until June of 1975, with numerous changes in personnel and repertoire, and then dissolved when Mark was preparing to continue college in Massachusetts.  Together with Jeff Zurheide and John Mastick from The Last Psalm he also played in Jacob's Well, and later with Jeff in Aurora and numerous unnamed bands, including one which opened for Barry McGuire at Gordon College's March Thaw and others which played as part of evangelism work at the Topsfield Fair.

He earned an A.A. from Luther College of the Bible and Liberal Arts in Teaneck, New Jersey, and then an A.B. in Biblical Studies from Gordon College.  He met his wife Janet at Luther, and married her while attending Gordon.  His pursuit of a career in Christian music then put him at contemporary Christian radio station WNNN-FM in south Jersey, which at that time was one of the most respected of such stations in the country; over the course of five years he rose to program director, and then left over a disagreement with management concerning responsibilities and programming decisions.  During that time he also taught undergraduate level New Testament studies at the Institute of the Great Commission in Pitman, New Jersey, and became involved in role playing games.

Role playing games became a significant step in his life.  After leaving the radio station he worked a few other jobs, was asked to run another band in the '80s which he named TerraNova, and attended law school graduating with honors, and met someone who wanted help writing a game he was creating.  That game became Multiverser, and through his involvement in that he was introduced to the Christian Gamers Guild, which in about 1998 made him its chaplain and has re-elected him to that position for consecutive two-year terms ever since.  He wrote the Faith and Gaming series online, later released as a book, one of several Christian books he has written in addition to game books and a published novel.  He also teaches an online Bible class in small pieces six nights a week.  He created another band in the mid '90s, Cardiac Output, which played once or twice and then foundered against the rocks of life.

He primarily works as a writer, publishing articles on politics and on time travel movies through TheExaminer.com, and working on several books for future release.

In the early 00s Tyler Chroniger asked him to play bass for a midweek worship time, and this was the beginning of the band 7dB; when Tyler left, the connection with that church was greatly reduced, and the band became Collision.