It was founded in 1918 as the Church of God Bible Training School with twelve students and one teacher, Nora I.

[7] Lee University’s current campus originally housed a Methodist institution, Centenary College and Music School, as early as 1885.

[8] In 1911, at its sixth annual General Assembly, the Church of God appointed a committee to establish plans for a Bible training school.

[9] In 1920, the school expanded to the old sanctuary of the North Cleveland Church of God on People street and included a dormitory.

[15] The Bible training school purchased the 20-acre campus for $1.5 million and the institution returned to Cleveland under a new name, Lee College, to honor its second president, Rev.

[9] The following year Lee established its Global Perspectives program, requiring all undergraduates to study abroad.

In 2007, Lee launched its Encore program for students over 60 and purchased the former campus of Mayfield Elementary School.

[22][23] In 2010, Lee purchased the downtown campus of Cleveland's First Baptist Church for $5 million to house a performance venue, Pangle Hall, and the School of Business.

[25] The university filed an amicus brief in favor of employment discrimination against LGBT people in the court case Bostock v. Clayton County in 2019.

The university is a member of the Division II level of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), primarily competing in the Gulf South Conference (GSC) since the 2013–14 academic year.

Club sports are offered such as boxing, men's and women's rugby, spikeball and ultimate frisbee.

Lee University is located on a 120-acre campus in the town of Cleveland, Tennessee, which lies between Chattanooga and Knoxville.

[10] Note: Dates of construction given when known[33] All students are asked to sign a "Community Covenant" which lists several restrictions on behaviors and social interaction according to the school's institutional and religious policy.

Most notable are a substance policy barring alcohol, tobacco, and illegal drugs; and its stance on homosexuality, which is banned in all forms.