The church was built between 1878 and 1882 to designs by Emil Viktor Langlet, an architect associated with several notable Swedish buildings of the period. It takes the form of a centralised timber church, a plan type that creates a spacious interior beneath a compact exterior silhouette, and was intended to serve the growing community around Gällivare's mining industry.
The building's plan was later altered in 1966–1967, when the architect Bengt Romare oversaw an extension of the eastern and western cross-arms. This work added a porch in the west arm and a sacristy in the east arm, adapting the historic structure to the practical needs of a modern parish while retaining its original wooden character.
The church has had a succession of organs. The first was built in 1889 by E. A. Setterquist & Son of Örebro, with seven stops; it was, according to a contemporary newspaper notice, inaugurated without a prior inspection. A larger instrument followed in 1931 from Johan William Grönlund of Kåge, and the present mechanical organ was installed in 1971 by Grönlunds Orgelbyggeri. A separate choir organ, built in 1970 by the Finnish firm OY Kangasala, also serves the church.
Visitors interested in Swedish ecclesiastical architecture will find Gällivare kyrka a good example of a timber centralised church from the late nineteenth century, built to serve a remote industrial community, and subsequently adapted over the following century to changing liturgical and practical needs.