Church Partnerships, Network Partnerships

It seems like a healthy thing to do to have 'sister churches' around the country or even around the world. I'm trying to think about meaningful ways to express this partnership. It would be easy for such a thing to become a gimmick and also to become time consuming. What would actually be productive, rather than just another good idea among many?

Also, how might one 'movement' or 'network' have meaningful partnership with another? On this level, it would be easy for the partnership to be symbolic or bureaucratic, rather than meaningful. It is hard to figure out how to make it all work well.