diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index c26a766..083fbfd 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -82,6 +82,7 @@ All of the configuration data is stored in a file called `config.json` that must
 |MAIN.DISCORD_APP_TOKEN     |""                         |The discord bot token the birdge will use to log into discord
 |MAIN.LOG_LEVEL             |"INFO"                     |Set the log level, can be `INFO` or `DEBUG`
 |MAIN.MESSAGE_DELAY         |1.5                        |Set the delay between messages sent from discord to minecraft
+|MAIN.FAILSAFE_RETRIES      |3                          |The amount of times to try reconnecting to an online server before giving up and exiting.
 |MAIN.ADMINS                |\[283983554051047425\]     |Array of discord user ids that have administrative access to the bot
 |AUTH_SERVER.BIND.IP        |""                         |The IPv4 address which the authentication server will bind to (set to blank for 0.0.0.0)
 |AUTH_SERVER.PORT           |9822                       |The port which the authentication server will bind to
diff --git a/config.example.json b/config.example.json
index df172f1..3935d46 100644
--- a/config.example.json
+++ b/config.example.json
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
         "DISCORD_APP_TOKEN": "",
         "LOG_LEVEL": "INFO",
         "MESSAGE_DELAY": 1.5,
+        "FAILSAFE_RETRIES": 3,
         "ADMINS": [
             283983554051047425
         ]
diff --git a/minecraft_discord_bridge/config.py b/minecraft_discord_bridge/config.py
index 45a7925..a118bb9 100644
--- a/minecraft_discord_bridge/config.py
+++ b/minecraft_discord_bridge/config.py
@@ -36,6 +36,7 @@ class Configuration(object):
                 self.discord_token = self._config["MAIN"]["DISCORD_APP_TOKEN"]
                 self.logging_level = self._config["MAIN"]["LOG_LEVEL"]
                 self.message_delay = self._config["MAIN"]["MESSAGE_DELAY"]
+                self.failsafe_retries = self._config["MAIN"]["FAILSAFE_RETRIES"]
                 self.admin_users = self._config["MAIN"]["ADMINS"]
                 self.auth_ip = self._config["AUTH_SERVER"]["BIND_IP"]
                 self.auth_port = self._config["AUTH_SERVER"]["PORT"]
diff --git a/minecraft_discord_bridge/minecraft_discord_bridge.py b/minecraft_discord_bridge/minecraft_discord_bridge.py
index e6c6308..d1e8fbf 100755
--- a/minecraft_discord_bridge/minecraft_discord_bridge.py
+++ b/minecraft_discord_bridge/minecraft_discord_bridge.py
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ from mcstatus import MinecraftServer
 from bidict import bidict
 from requests_futures.sessions import FuturesSession
 
+import _thread
+
 import minecraft_discord_bridge
 from .database_session import DatabaseSession
 from .elasticsearch_logger import ElasticsearchLogger, ConnectionReason
@@ -66,6 +68,7 @@ class MinecraftDiscordBridge():
         # Initialize the discord part
         self.discord_bot = discord.Client()
         self.config = Configuration("config.json")
+        self.connection_retries = 0
         self.auth_token = None
         self.connection = None
         self.setup_logging(self.config.logging_level)
@@ -494,10 +497,11 @@ class MinecraftDiscordBridge():
                 handle_exception=self.minecraft_handle_exception)
 
         self.register_handlers(self.connection)
+        self.connection_retries += 1
         self.connection.connect()
         try:
             self.aioloop.run_until_complete(self.discord_bot.start(self.config.discord_token))
-        except KeyboardInterrupt:
+        except (KeyboardInterrupt, SystemExit):
             # log out of discord
             self.aioloop.run_until_complete(self.discord_bot.logout())
             # log out of minecraft
@@ -638,6 +642,14 @@ class MinecraftDiscordBridge():
         self.logger.info('Disconnected.')
         if json_data:
             self.logger.info("Disconnect json data: %s", json_data)
+        if self.connection_retries >= self.config.failsafe_retries:
+            self.logger.info("Failed to join the server %s times in a row. Exiting.", self.connection_retries)
+            self.logger.info("Use a process supervisor if you wish to automatically restart the bridge.")
+            # This is possibly a huge hack... Since we cannot reliably raise exceptions on this thread
+            # for them to be caught on the main thread, we call interrupt_main to raise a KeyboardInterrupt
+            # on main and tell it to shut the bridge down.
+            _thread.interrupt_main()
+            return
         self.previous_player_list = self.player_list.copy()
         self.accept_join_events = False
         self.player_list = bidict()
@@ -649,6 +661,7 @@ class MinecraftDiscordBridge():
             self.logger.info('Not reconnecting to server because it appears to be offline.')
             time.sleep(15)
         self.logger.info('Reconnecting.')
+        self.connection_retries += 1
         self.connection.connect()
 
     def handle_disconnect_packet(self, disconnect_packet):
@@ -764,6 +777,7 @@ class MinecraftDiscordBridge():
     def handle_join_game(self, join_game_packet):
         self.logger.info('Connected and joined game as entity id %d', join_game_packet.entity_id)
         self.player_list = bidict()
+        self.connection_retries = 0
 
     def handle_chat(self, chat_packet):
         json_data = json.loads(chat_packet.json_data)
@@ -822,7 +836,7 @@ class MinecraftDiscordBridge():
 
 
 def handle_sigterm(*args, **kwargs):
-    raise KeyboardInterrupt()
+    raise KeyboardInterrupt
 
 
 def main():