It is located in the village of Bakka, on the shores of the sparsely populated Nærøyfjorden.

It is the church for the Nærøy parish which is part of the Sogn prosti (deanery) in the Diocese of Bjørgvin.

In the 1820s and 1830s, there was talk of relocating the old stave church to be closer to the population of the parish, but nothing was done.

At that time new plans were made to divide the parish and build a new church along the Nærøyfjorden in the village of Bakka.

The new church was designed by Christian Henrik Grosch and the lead builders were Ole O. Løen and Rasmus Nøstdal from Eid.