A stone church existed at Nykil as early as the 1200s, consisting of a nave, chancel and tower, with the bells hung separately in a freestanding belfry in the churchyard. That building was vaulted, probably in the early 1500s, and enlarged more than once as the congregation grew, including an extension in 1734 and a new tower built by master builder Petter Frimodig, completed in 1763.
By the later eighteenth century the old church was too small, and in 1784 a contract was signed with builder Casper Seurling of Mjölby for a replacement. The new church was raised just outside the walls of its predecessor, using stone salvaged from the demolished building, which was pulled down in 1785. Parishioners supplied timber and stone locally. The present church, completed in 1786, retains parts of the old tower in its west end, behind a chancel of Gustavian design with a barrel-vaulted nave and round-arched windows.
The interior is dominated by a Gustavian altarpiece depicting Christ in Gethsemane, framed by ornamented black-and-gold pilasters, along with a matching pulpit of the same period. An older, carved altarpiece from 1750, showing the Crucifixion, hangs on the south wall; its trumpet-blowing angel figures were originally made for a now-altered organ case. A medieval crucifix hangs near the font, and the font itself, from the 1950s, was designed by architect Kurt von Schmalensee.
The church's organ has its own layered history: an eighteenth-century instrument by Jonas Wistenius was later replaced, in the 1860s, by a new mechanical organ built by the Nordström brothers of Flisby, which still stands on the west gallery today, having undergone several later repairs and restorations.