diff --git a/src/ParseServer.js b/src/ParseServer.js
index 51f94dc044e..a30df2963be 100644
--- a/src/ParseServer.js
+++ b/src/ParseServer.js
@@ -46,8 +46,8 @@ import { SchemasRouter }        from './Routers/SchemasRouter';
 import { SessionsRouter }       from './Routers/SessionsRouter';
 import { UserController }       from './Controllers/UserController';
 import { UsersRouter }          from './Routers/UsersRouter';
-
 import ParsePushAdapter         from 'parse-server-push-adapter';
+
 // Mutate the Parse object to add the Cloud Code handlers
 addParseCloud();
 
@@ -115,6 +115,7 @@ class ParseServer {
     },
     liveQuery = {},
     sessionLength = 31536000, // 1 Year in seconds
+    verbose = false,
   }) {
     // Initialize the node client SDK automatically
     Parse.initialize(appId, javascriptKey || 'unused', masterKey);
@@ -149,6 +150,9 @@ class ParseServer {
       }
     }
 
+    if (verbose || process.env.VERBOSE || process.env.VERBOSE_PARSE_SERVER) {
+      configureLogger({level: 'silly'});
+    }
 
     const filesControllerAdapter = loadAdapter(filesAdapter, () => {
       return new GridStoreAdapter(databaseURI);
diff --git a/src/cli/cli-definitions.js b/src/cli/cli-definitions.js
index 70d97638bf8..dd908bcd045 100644
--- a/src/cli/cli-definitions.js
+++ b/src/cli/cli-definitions.js
@@ -170,5 +170,9 @@ export default {
     env: "PARSE_SERVER_SESSION_LENGTH",
     help: "Session duration, defaults to 1 year",
     action: numberParser("sessionLength")
+  },
+  "verbose": {
+    env: "VERBOSE",
+    help: "Set the logging to verbose"
   }
 };
diff --git a/src/index.js b/src/index.js
index 515ea732aea..7c453454680 100644
--- a/src/index.js
+++ b/src/index.js
@@ -4,14 +4,6 @@ import S3Adapter         from 'parse-server-s3-adapter'
 import FileSystemAdapter from 'parse-server-fs-adapter'
 import { useExternal }   from './deprecated'
 
-if (process.env.VERBOSE || process.env.VERBOSE_PARSE_SERVER) {
-  winston.level = 'silly';
-}
-
-if (process.env.DEBUG || process.env.DEBUG_PARSE_SERVER) {
-  winston.level = 'debug';
-}
-
 // Factory function
 let _ParseServer = function(options) {
   let server = new ParseServer(options);
diff --git a/src/logger.js b/src/logger.js
index 42e84b27876..e0556bf7d91 100644
--- a/src/logger.js
+++ b/src/logger.js
@@ -11,8 +11,7 @@ if (typeof process !== 'undefined' && process.env.NODE_ENV === 'test') {
 
 let currentLogsFolder = LOGS_FOLDER;
 
-function generateTransports() {
-  let level = process.env.VERBOSE ? 'verbose': 'info';
+function generateTransports(level) {
   let transports = [
     new (DailyRotateFile)({
       filename: 'parse-server.info',
@@ -38,7 +37,8 @@ function generateTransports() {
 
 const logger = new winston.Logger();
 
-export function configureLogger({logsFolder}) {
+export function configureLogger({logsFolder, level = winston.level}) {
+  winston.level = level;
   logsFolder = logsFolder || currentLogsFolder;
 
   if (!path.isAbsolute(logsFolder)) {
@@ -50,15 +50,14 @@ export function configureLogger({logsFolder}) {
   currentLogsFolder = logsFolder;
 
   logger.configure({
-    transports:  generateTransports()
+    transports:  generateTransports(level)
   })
 }
 
 configureLogger({logsFolder: LOGS_FOLDER});
 
 export function addGroup(groupName) {
-  let level = process.env.VERBOSE ? 'verbose': 'info';
-
+  let level = winston.level;
   let transports =  generateTransports().concat(new (DailyRotateFile)({
     filename: groupName,
     dirname: currentLogsFolder,