Local tradition holds that a wooden church, perhaps even a stave church, may have stood at Lysvik as early as the 1200s, an idea partly supported by the survival of a stone font from that century. Made in Norway, this font is the oldest object in the church and remains in use today.
The present building is constructed of natural stone, with a single-nave layout, a three-sided chancel to the east, a sacristy attached to the north side of the chancel, and a tower at the west end. The appearance of the tower has changed over time: a major restoration in the 1830s saw the original shingle roof replaced with slate and the tall original spire removed in favour of a lower tower with a lantern, before a new, taller metal-clad spire was added in 1901.
The windows were enlarged in 1858, requiring the walls to be partly rebuilt, and the church, previously unheated, gained stoves in 1878. A significant restoration in 1932 introduced painted decoration to the walls and vaults and coloured glass depicting baptism and communion in the chancel windows, all the work of the artist Tor Hörlin; some of these chancel wall paintings were later painted over in a 1972 renovation.
The altarpiece is a notable survival: its structure dates from 1697 and is thought to have been brought from the earlier church when the present building was completed. During the move, the painting was restored and carved figures and ornaments were fitted to the old framework, work attributed to the sculptor Isac Schullström, who worked in several Värmland churches during the eighteenth century.
Other furnishings include a pulpit from 1858 with a hexagonal body and a gilded lamb beneath its canopy, incorporating an older hourglass dated 1693, and a carved angel figure from the eighteenth century. The church's organ has been rebuilt more than once since its nineteenth-century origins, and a separate small chancel organ was added in the late twentieth century.