Leadership toward excellence is vital in shaping human and ecological life, but who defines and benefits from excellence? In religious and educational communities, visions of excellence can serve to support the flourishing of life, and also to critique perspectives that reinforce individualism and hierarchical systems. This paper explores excellence in three narratives of leadership in public and religious spheres and in dialogue with religious education values. It underscores the importance of excellence that is developed by and for living communities within their larger contexts, and it concludes with five contributions from the field of religious education.