diff --git a/DOCKER/Dockerfile b/DOCKER/Dockerfile
index e3a918749..67aa3663f 100644
--- a/DOCKER/Dockerfile
+++ b/DOCKER/Dockerfile
@@ -27,28 +27,21 @@ WORKDIR $TMHOME
 # p2p, rpc and prometheus port
 EXPOSE 26656 26657 26660
 
-ENTRYPOINT ["/usr/bin/tendermint"]
-CMD ["node"]
 STOPSIGNAL SIGTERM
 
 ARG BINARY=tendermint
 COPY $BINARY /usr/bin/tendermint
 
-# Create default configuration for docker run.
-RUN /usr/bin/tendermint init && \
-    sed -i \
-      -e 's/^proxy_app\s*=.*/proxy_app = "kvstore"/' \
-      -e 's/^moniker\s*=.*/moniker = "dockernode"/' \
-      -e 's/^addr_book_strict\s*=.*/addr_book_strict = false/' \
-      -e 's/^timeout_commit\s*=.*/timeout_commit = "500ms"/' \
-      -e 's/^index_all_tags\s*=.*/index_all_tags = true/' \
-      -e 's,^laddr = "tcp://127.0.0.1:26657",laddr = "tcp://0.0.0.0:26657",' \
-      -e 's/^prometheus\s*=.*/prometheus = true/' \
-      $TMHOME/config/config.toml && \
-    sed -i \
-      -e 's/^\s*"chain_id":.*/  "chain_id": "dockerchain",/' \
-      $TMHOME/config/genesis.json
+# You can overwrite these before the first run to influence
+# config.json and genesis.json. Additionally, you can override
+# CMD to add parameters to `tendermint node`.
+ENV PROXY_APP=kvstore MONIKER=dockernode CHAIN_ID=dockerchain
+
+COPY ./docker-entrypoint.sh /usr/local/bin/
+
+ENTRYPOINT ["docker-entrypoint.sh"]
+CMD ["node"]
 
 # Expose the data directory as a volume since there's mutable state in there
-VOLUME [ $TMHOME ]
+VOLUME [ "$TMHOME" ]
 
diff --git a/DOCKER/docker-entrypoint.sh b/DOCKER/docker-entrypoint.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..a06912352
--- /dev/null
+++ b/DOCKER/docker-entrypoint.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -e
+
+if [ ! -d "$TMHOME/config" ]; then
+	echo "Running tendermint init to create (default) configuration for docker run."
+	tendermint init &&
+		sed -i \
+			-e "s/^proxy_app\s*=.*/proxy_app = \"$PROXY_APP\"/" \
+			-e "s/^moniker\s*=.*/moniker = \"$MONIKER\"/" \
+			-e 's/^addr_book_strict\s*=.*/addr_book_strict = false/' \
+			-e 's/^timeout_commit\s*=.*/timeout_commit = "500ms"/' \
+			-e 's/^index_all_tags\s*=.*/index_all_tags = true/' \
+			-e 's,^laddr = "tcp://127.0.0.1:26657",laddr = "tcp://0.0.0.0:26657",' \
+			-e 's/^prometheus\s*=.*/prometheus = true/' \
+			"$TMHOME/config/config.toml" &&
+		sed -i \
+			-e "s/^\s*\"chain_id\":.*/  \"chain_id\": \"$CHAIN_ID\",/" \
+			"$TMHOME/config/genesis.json"
+fi
+
+exec tendermint "$@"