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

From the upper parts of the Grøndalen valley down to the fjord it was a distance of 20 kilometres (12 mi) which included crossing five lakes by boat.

From the fjord to Bru Church, it was another 40 kilometres (25 mi) across the sea, which took about four hours by row boat (if the weather was fine).

In 1887, the local residents formally requested their own church, and two years after that, the decision was made to get started on the project.

The people in the valley had raised 2000 kr, and the same sum was allocated by the Norwegian Parliament and the municipality of Kinn.