The story of worship in Årsta begins well before the present church existed. The suburb was built in the 1940s, and plans for a church were discussed almost from the start. In 1945 the Årsta church foundation was formed, and in 1952 a bell tower, bought from Fyrunga parish in Västergötland, was consecrated on the site. A parish house designed by Göran Dahlstrand followed in 1969, seating around 112 people and containing a chapel-like hall with an altar that served the community for decades.
After long discussion, the parish council decided in 2008 to build a proper church alongside the existing parish house, partly because the chapel hall was too small for larger events and partly because travel between Årsta and the parish's other church, Enskede kyrka, was considered inconvenient. Construction began in 2010, and the new Årsta kyrka, designed by architect Johan Celsing, was consecrated in August 2011 by Bishop Eva Brunne. The building was later nominated for the Stockholm Building of the Year award and the Kasper Salin Prize, and received the Helgo Prize in 2013.
Architecturally, the church is built with brick both outside and in: reddish-brown brick on the exterior and whitewashed, partly glazed brick within. The square worship space, seating roughly 200, has an unusually tall profile and asymmetrical roof beams, with two small chapels adjoining the main hall. Celsing originally intended the church to stand as a separate structure with light entering from skylights above, but revised his plans at the parish's request so that the church and parish house would be physically connected by a shared foyer, and replaced the skylights with more conventional windows, saying he wanted the architecture to stay in the background of the human rites and encounters taking place inside.
Visitors exploring the parish house today are, in effect, looking at the successor to a modest 1969 hall that once did double duty as chapel and community room, now complemented by a purpose-built, award-recognised church next door.